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Government agencies should look at attracting more staff from outside the federal bureaucracy by relocating positions to cities and towns other than Canberra, former public service commissioner John Lloyd says. The ACT's clear support for Labor at the ballot box is also a "worrying anomaly" that raises concerns about barriers between public servants and the views of wider Australia, he said. Mr Lloyd has used an article in The Australian to urge departments with policy responsibility to consider moving some roles to other cities and localities. "Many Canberra bureaucrats have difficulty even contemplating a shift from Barton to Tuggeranong, let alone moving to an interstate city. A move of one agency's operations to a regional centre last term was equated with having to live in Siberia," he said. Mr Lloyd said a forecast population boom in Sydney and Melbourne would pose a challenge for Canberra in competing with the major cities for talented staff. He pointed to Canberra voting trends in raising questions about the relationship between its bureaucrats and people living outside the national capital, after the city again overwhelmingly backed ALP candidates at May's federal poll. Support for Labor in the ACT contrasted with the result outside the centre of the federal bureaucracy, he wrote in The Australian on Monday, after the Coalition's national two-party preferred vote reached 51 per cent. "The theory is that the make-up of the APS should mirror the Australian community. The gurus say this will aid policy development that draws on the ideas of the diverse Australian community. And, after all, the community pays the bureaucrats' salaries," he wrote. The public service had a solid record as a professional outfit enacting government policy, and its emphasis on professionalism meant staff subjugated their political views when doing their job, Mr Lloyd said. "However, more subtle influences may need to be addressed," he said. "Care has to be taken to ensure the APS does not become disconnected from the broader national community. An APS officer in Canberra easily can become captured by a limited insider's perspective." Mr Lloyd, now workplace relations director at free market think tank the Institute of Public Affairs, told The Canberra Times there was at times a tendency among public servants to adopt styles of thinking attuned to "trendy", left-wing politics. He also noted "tut-tutting" of right-wing politicians or groups, and an acceptance of the "dogma" of climate change among public servants. MORE PUBLIC SERVICE NEWS: Canberra was small but had matured as a city, and children of public servants were growing up having never lived anywhere else, Mr Lloyd said. "You need to be careful that agencies are getting the full range of views," he said. Mr Lloyd, who was Melbourne-based during his tenure overseeing the bureaucracy's workforce as APS commissioner, also cautioned against complacency among the public service's Canberra staff about outsiders. "At times there was a bit of a disdain that unless you're in Canberra and immersed in the public service and political scene, you wouldn't understand the challenges and complexities of policy," he said. Mr Lloyd in his article called for MPs to share promising ideas from constituents with the public service, and for portfolios and agencies to consult more widely than with familiar lobbyists, industry associations, non-government organisations and other Canberra players. Mr Lloyd, who resigned from his role in the APS commission last year, was accused by Labor and the main public sector union for being partisan in the job. The former commissioner on Monday said he had subjugated his political views in carrying out his role and that the ALP had resorted to personal attacks. Labor won all three of the ACT's federal electorates by large margins, and took the inner-city seat of Canberra with 67 per cent of the two party preferred vote. The city last elected a Liberal lower house MP, Brendan Smyth, in 1995.

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