Who Serves Whom?
🧭 Who Serves Whom? A Civic Reminder
When will every tier of government—and every tier of the public service—realise and truly comprehend that they exist for our benefit?
Not as overlords. Not as gatekeepers. Not as self-replicating bureaucracies with mission creep and media teams. But as servants of the public good. We, the people, pay their salaries. We fund their offices, their vehicles, their travel, their superannuation. We are not their subjects. We are their reason for being.
And yet, somewhere along the way, the civic compact got flipped.
🏛️ The Inversion of Service
Ministers speak of “servicing stakeholders” while forgetting the actual stake: public trust.
Agencies issue press releases about “delivering outcomes” while outsourcing accountability.
Local councils consult, collate, and then do precisely what they planned before asking.
It’s not always malice. It’s drift. A slow, systemic forgetting of purpose. A culture of internal KPIs and career ladders replacing the humble ethic of service.
💡 The Paradox of Public Sector Taxes
Here’s the uncomfortable truth: when public servants pay tax, they are not “funding government” in the same way private citizens and businesses do. Their salaries are already drawn from the tax pool collected from the private sector.
Private sector tax → collected by government → funds public service wages.
Public service tax → deducted from those wages → returned to Treasury.
It’s a closed loop. A recycling of the original private sector contribution. The paradox is that while public servants are taxpayers on paper, their taxes are not “new” revenue—they are a partial refund of what was already taken from the productive economy.
This doesn’t diminish the dignity of their work. But it does remind us that the primary source of government revenue is the private sector, and with that comes a duty of humility and accountability in how those funds are spent.
📜 What the Law Actually Says
The Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013 (PGPA Act) is crystal clear about the duty of officials:
Officials must use resources “efficiently, effectively, economically and ethically” (PGPA Act, s. 15)1.
APS employees are required to use Commonwealth resources “in a proper manner and for a proper purpose”2.
Commonwealth resources include not just money, but “the salary costs of APS employees” themselves2.
In other words: the law already recognises that their wages are part of the public resource pool. Which makes the inversion of service all the more galling.
🪧 We Don’t Exist for Their Benefit
We are not here to prop up their portfolios, justify their budgets, or applaud their announcements. We are here to live decent lives. To raise families. To build communities. To age with dignity. And we expect—no, we require—that those in power remember their place in that equation.
So here’s the civic reminder, blunt and overdue:
You work for us. Not the other way around.
And if that truth makes you uncomfortable, good. That’s the beginning of comprehension.
📣 Call to Action: Reclaim the Civic Compact
It’s time to turn frustration into action. Here’s how:
Ask for accountability: Use FOI requests to demand transparency on how public funds are spent.
Quote the PGPA Act: When writing to MPs, councils, or agencies, cite their legal duty to act “efficiently, effectively, economically and ethically.”
Challenge the drift: Attend consultations. Submit feedback. Don’t let “engagement” be a checkbox.
Support reformers: Back candidates and public servants who speak plainly, act humbly, and remember who they serve.
Share this message: Repost, reframe, remix. The civic compact needs a revival—and it starts with us.
📚 References
1Public Governance, Performance and Accountability Act 2013, Section 15: “The accountable authority of a Commonwealth entity must govern the entity in a way that… promotes the proper use and management of public resources, being efficient, effective, economical and ethical.” Legislation.gov.au
2APS Values and Code of Conduct in Practice, Section 7: “APS employees are required to use Commonwealth resources in a proper manner and for a proper purpose… ‘Commonwealth resources’… includes the salary costs of APS employees.” Australian Public Service Commission
