Royal Commission on the State Public Service

Full description

The Royal Commission on the State Public Service (Victoria) (also known as the Royal Commission of Inquiry into the Working of Public Departments) was asked to investigate the whole public service administration of the State of Victoria, exclusive only of Railways Department which was investigated by a separate Royal Commission (VA 5174) in the same year. This Royal Commission was specifically asked to include in its survey the “officers of Parliament”. It was entered in the Records of Patents Book Number 24, page 440, on 17th February, 1916.

The Commission’s members were Alexander Cooch, William Ross Anderson and Joseph Thorton Tweddle. The Final Report, totalling 131 pages, was presented to both Houses of Parliament by His Excellency’s Command, and addressed to His Excellency the Honourable Sir Arthur Lyulph Stanley, Governor of the State of Victoria, in 1917. The Commissioner’s examined 109 public sector officials for the Final Report.

The Final Report sets out the history of public service legislation and the conditions, regulating entrance to the public service. Then follows a close analysis of the performance of Government Departments in this order: Treasury, Chief Secretary’s Department, Department of Public Instruction, Law Department, Department of Lands and Survey, Public Works Department, Mines Department, Department of Public Health, Agriculture Department, State Forest Department, Department of Labour. A final chapter discusses the officers of Parliament, fire insurance and fire prevention, amalgamation of State Laboratories, employment of women.

The recommendations of the First Progress Report (originally published on 30th June 1916) are summarised at the end of the Final Report, which ends with a “Summary of conclusions and recommendations with an estimate of resulting economics and proposed new revenue”. The Final Report also contains an appendix titled “The Department Record System”, a Report authored by Mr. Henry Octavius Allan, from the Department of Crown Lands and Survey.