The outgoing Australian public service commissioner, John Lloyd, has blasted “do-gooders telling us what we should eat and drink” in a valedictory speech complaining about the nanny state but warning Labor not to abolish the specialist construction watchdog.

Lloyd – who is still under investigation for an alleged code of conduct breach for his dealings with the Institute of Public Affairs – said he had “copped criticism” in his role and complained that he had found the investigation process “most unsatisfactory”.

In a speech to the Institute of Public Administration Australia in Canberra, Lloyd made light of the controversy. Labor’s Penny Wong has spearheaded questioning about whether Lloyd gave preferential treatment to the IPA – a rightwing thinktank – which he used to lead.

“I thank the IPA-A for organising this event,” Lloyd said on Monday. “I have to be careful with the various institutes I engage with. If I omitted the second A, I may make Senator Wong more unhappy.”

Lloyd said Australians’ “healthy scepticism about authority” was “no longer evident”.

“We are deluged at every turn by do-gooders telling us what we should eat and drink, how we should exercise, how we should think, how we should spend our money, what type of dwelling we should live in,” he said. “It seems every day is a world day for either genuine or mindless causes for good. Virtue signalling is rampant in some quarters.”

Lloyd said there was a danger that good policy advice was being “stifled by pervasive groupthink dictated by what is politically correct”.

“The Canberra setting can be particularly vulnerable to this.”

Lloyd – who presided over the public service commission as it put in place restrictive social media practices warning public servants not to like or share anti-government posts – suggested leaders should “stand up and question the prevailing orthodoxy”.

Lloyd argued the “too regulated and inflexible” workplace relations system needed to be deregulated and warned unions were seeking “more and deep regulation” that would damage employment prospects.

Lloyd, who was appointed as the first Australian Building and Construction Commissioner in 2005, warned it would be a “seriously retrograde step to abolish” the building industry regulator, as Labor has promised to do.

He said his stint at the ABCC had shown the construction industry was “ruthless and corrupt” and claimed to have “markedly reduced the incidence of unlawful conduct including unlawful industrial action”.

“Without the ABCC many of the industry participants would once again prove they are singular in their disregard for the law and the use of brutal and unfair practices.”



Lloyd, who resigned in June, concludes his term as commissioner on Wednesday, after which the merit protection commissioner will have no jurisdiction to continue an investigation into his conduct.

The commissioner, Linda Waugh, told Guardian Australia last week it was “not appropriate” to provide information about the investigation but she intended “to conclude this matter as quickly as possible”.

“I can indicate it is my intention to have this matter concluded before 8 August,” Waugh said.

Lloyd will be replaced by Peter Woolcott, a career public servant and diplomat who is now Malcolm Turnbull’s chief of staff.