Welcome to the Connected Government website.

Thank you for visiting the Australian Public Service’s Connected Government site. I hope you find the site helps you to understand what ‘whole of government’ work is about: what it aims to achieve, why it is important and how to use the approaches, tools and resources available through this site.

As I commented when releasing the report by the Management Advisory Committee on Connecting Government, Australians rightly demand the delivery of government programmes and services in a seamless way. They should also expect that, behind the scenes, all the resources of government will be coordinated in the search for innovative solutions to complex issues.

The Australian Government is embarking on a bold experiment in implementing a whole-of-government approach both to policy development and service delivery. The challenge is to ensure that the collective decision-making of the Australian Government is based upon the best-informed articulation of the challenges faced and a strategic assessment of the relative merits of the different means by which they might be addressed.

Whole-of-government is the public administration of the future. It is essential if the APS is to respond effectively to face the governance challenges of the 21st century. It extols team-based approaches to solving the ‘wicked’ problems that are endemic to public policy.

Whether developing welfare to work policy, countering the threat of terrorism, or delivering services to indigenous Australians more effectively, there is a need to overcome the traditional organisational demarcations of bureaucracy. It requires a leadership committed to collegiality, cooperation and flexibility. It needs a bias for action. It is the prerequisite for improving the quality of our democratic governance.

Peter Shergold
Secretary
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet