Glyn Davis to quit as the prime minister’s top public servant

Written by: Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra

Glyn Davis, Anthony Albanese’s hand-picked Secretary of the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, will leave the post on June 16.

Albanese paid tribute to Davis for rebuilding the public service.

“One of the key priorities of our government’s first term was rebuilding the capacity of the Australian Public Service,” the PM said in a statement.

“This included rebuilding the confidence of people who worked in the APS, making sure they understood that the government valued their ideas, respected their hard work and recognised their vital role in our democracy.”

Albanese said Davis had “worked calmly and steadily to reassert the purpose of the public service”.

He described Davis as “a man of unique strengths: an intellectual who embraces the practical, an institutionalist who champions reform.

"To his enduring credit, he leaves a great national institution in far better shape than he found it, to the benefit of all Australians.”

Davis, who has written extensively on public policy, had a long career in academia before taking the PM&C post. He was vice-chancellor of the University of Melbourne, where he undertook major reform.

Earlier, he had served the Queensland Labor governments of Wayne Goss and Peter Beattie.

His wife, Margaret Gardner, is former vice-chancellor of Monash University, and presently is Governor of Victoria.

Among the Albanese government’s public service reforms has been stripping back the use of consultants, bringing more work in-house.

The public service became a frontline issue at the election with the opposition promising a big cut to its size.

Davis said on Friday that he planned to take “a break, some time to think and write, some more involvement in the arts, and a moment to reflect on how best to contribute”.

He remains a visiting professor in the Blavatnik School at Oxford and hopes to spend some time there. “And I will get involved in some research projects at Melbourne also.” But he was not leaving one role for another, he added.

Authors: Michelle Grattan, Professorial Fellow, University of Canberra