Stephanie Foster became Interior Secretary last November following the public firing of Mike Pezzullo.
Pezzullo was fired after an independent investigation found he had violated the APS Code of Conduct “at least 14 times in connection with five overarching allegations.” These include “using one’s duties, power, position or authority to seek to obtain personal advantage or benefit” and engaging in “gossip or disrespectful criticism of ministers or public servants”. included.
In light of this, Mr. Foster has been given the difficult task of rebuilding the Home Office’s staff and leadership while providing clarity on the way forward amid mounting national security pressures and uncertainty.
In this revealing article, mandarin‘s “Secretary’s Sticky Notes” series, an annual series in which department leaders are asked five questions about their roles and what they expect to face this year, explains how Foster wants to reshape the culture. and lists priorities and challenges for 2024.
What were the highlights of 2023?
In my top job, my highlight was definitely steering the organization through the unexpected departure of a former secretary in a situation that could have really derailed the department. I was particularly proud of the tireless performance of my staff and of the leadership team, which came together so strongly to provide calm and continuity. It speaks volumes about an organization’s capabilities, professionalism, and commitment.
But, of course, I spent most of 2023 as Under-Secretary of Immigration and it was an absolute career highlight, doing a great job with a great team. Delivering the migration strategy, providing temporary protection visa holders with a path to permanent residence, relocating the remaining population from Nauru, and clearing the visa backlog was extremely fulfilling, but for me By far the most exciting part is seeing our nation-building mission once again recognized and celebrated by all, re-instilling a sense of pride and purpose in our immigrant teams.
What are your top priorities for 2024?
Contribute to keeping Australia prosperous, united and safe!
On the policy front, this means implementing the two main strategies announced by the government at the end of 2023 on migration and cybersecurity, and refreshing the approach to counter-terrorism in 2024. We also have an important mission to protect Australia’s critical infrastructure. It literally means keeping the lights on and our country functioning. Finally, as the Commonwealth’s Principal Secretary for Protective Security, I will have a special focus on all of the department’s enterprise elements, from integrity and human resources services to physical security settings and technology security.
Internally, we will focus on the efforts we launched last year to renew our culture, leverage our strengths, build capacity, and foster a culture of openness, integrity, excellence, and collaboration. This latter quality underpins one of our greatest opportunities: to be a trusted and committed partner and collaborator across government, industry, the international community and, of course, the communities we serve. .
The challenges we are addressing affect all parts of society and the economy, including migration flows, social cohesion, cybersecurity, national security, and the movement of goods and services across borders. Therefore, we need to accelerate progress toward a culture that strengthens staff awareness of the benefits that come from increased personal ownership, engagement, and collaboration. This will unlock all the features present within this amazing portfolio.
What is your department’s biggest problem or opportunity?
What I’m most excited about is that now that the topic of leadership change has subsided, we have the opportunity to rethink Home Affairs.
Many of the fundamentals remain unchanged. We must first do our part to keep Australia safe with robust, adaptable and informed policy and operational systems to combat terrorism, foreign interference and cybercrime. . We must play a strong role in building Australia’s national resilience, working with partners such as Defence, the National Emergency Management Agency and others. We will ensure our immigration system works in Australia’s interests, including admitting the migrants we need for our future prosperity, building strong integrity measures into our end-to-end system and protecting those most vulnerable to exploitation. must be guaranteed. And we must keep our borders secure.
How to do that and how to integrate complementary capabilities is an interesting question. There is great potential in bringing these complementary capabilities closer together and leveraging the policies and capabilities of all of them. Social cohesion is a good example. It begins with the first touchpoint a potential immigrant has with our visa system, continues their progress through the citizenship process, and how they benefit from and contribute to our multicultural policy. , and see how safe you feel. From pressures such as foreign interference.
What do you think is your biggest challenge as a leader?
In one word: patience! And if I could do one more thing, it would be persistence. With 15,000 employees spread across Australia and the world, it takes time to reach every staff member, engage them meaningfully in shaping the future, provide consistent leadership and messaging, and demonstrate progress. and requires continuous effort. But we have all the right ingredients in place: a unified and talented leadership team, a workforce committed to positive change, and an inherently inspiring mission.
Do you have any advice for those interested in a career at APS?
At the risk of sounding like a dinosaur, I just proudly celebrated my 37th birthday.th My first anniversary at APS has been nearly 40 years filled with opportunity and joy. For me, the key was to do what I love, give it my all, accept whatever happens, and build lasting, supportive relationships. I joined what was then the Defense Signals Directorate as a university graduate and fell in love with its mission to the point that I thought I would never leave. But 16 years later, I was seduced into joining the Department of Defense and fell in love with international policy. And after another six or seven years, I was persuaded to try the outside world and discovered the incredible impact of domestic policy.
It is an incredible privilege to have the opportunity to work closely with people whose lives impact yours, as I have done particularly during my time working in the Australian Department of Regional Affairs and as a Deputy Commissioner for Immigration. is. And as APS Deputy Director, his deep dive into the inner workings of APS and from PM&C to government gave him interesting insights that few people have.
In other words, if you seize every opportunity, follow your heart, work hard, and care about people, you will find great fulfillment. But above all, it’s important to be yourself and have fun.