The Secretary to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, Dr Michael Keating, AC, will retire from the public service on 13 May. I wish to acknowledge here the distinguished and valuable contribution he has made to Australia and the Australian Public Service.
Dr Keating became Secretary to the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet in December 1991, after serving as Secretary to the Department of Employment and Industrial Relations and the Department of Finance. Earlier in his career, he spent two periods working for the OECD in Paris, in positions that included Head of the Economic Prospects Division and Head of the Growth Studies and Resource Allocation Division.
As Secretary to the Department of Finance in the 1980s, he played a leading role in instituting and pursuing public service management reformns. Since 1991 he has been Chair of the Australian Public Service Management Advisory Board. The focus of his career has been on the achievement of high standards in an apolitical, professional and
ethical public service.
I am grateful to Dr Keating for the assistance he has given my Government in its transition to office. As I foreshadowed in my statement of 8 March 1996, he will continue to have an involvement with the Commonwealth Government after he retires.
I shall be recommending to the Governor-General the appointment of Mr Max Moore-Wilton as the new Secretary to my Department. There will be a short hand-over period when the appointment is made.
Mr Moore-Wilton has been National Director, Policy Co-ordination and Priorities Review, with the Australian Stock Exchange Limited since 1995. Prior to that he held senior management positions in the New South Wales public sector as Chief Executive of the Maritime Services Board, as Director-General of the Department of Transport and as Chief Executive of the Roads and Traffic Authority. He held senior positions in Commonwealth agencies in the 1970s and 1980s, including as managing Director of the Australian National Line, and was a Deputy Secretary in the then Department of Primary Industry in 1979-80.
Mr Moore-Wilton's experience, particularly in micro-economic reform, will be of considerable value to the government and I am sure that Mr Moore-Wilton will be a valuable addition to the leadership of the public service.
9 April 1996