One of your own comments in this article, Madam Barrados, is that you're finding work that was done by somebody at level three is now being done by a level four. When the managers are asked why, they'll say they couldn't get anybody at the pay scale of level three. If you're unable to invite the people qualified to do the job at a certain scale, moving them up.... It seems we're coming at the problem from the wrong way. If we're not offering adequate compensation to attract and retain the people we need, maybe it's a lack of direction overall.
For public servants to feel engaged and satisfied in their work, I think they have to feel that they're part of a vision. That has to be articulated. When we built up our public service in the post-war years, there was that national vision, a vision that we were building a great nation and building great things, but after ten years of, as I say, vilifying the public service and having certain sectors of our culture blaming public servants for the deficits or the messes that governments got themselves into....
I'll just finish where I started. I think we have a much bigger morale and malaise problem than the reclassification problems. The mobility within the public service that you spoke about last time is a symptom of a much larger problem.