Health has a much larger load in dealing with the media than most portfolios. It receives more headlines that it must respond to, its programs affect every member of the public and it has responsibilities in health promotion. Other line agencies might have smaller workloads, but most are involved in each of the elements I have described. Agencies directly delivering services are these days very extensively involved in sophisticated communications management, including through the use of the latest technology.

The central agencies’ role varies. The Department of PM&C has the job of monitoring the media across all government activities and providing the Prime Minister with briefings on any of them. They, however, have limited involvement in broader communications management. Treasury under the Howard Government was drawn into preparing more briefs for the Treasurer than in the past, but the load on the Finance department seemed still to be relatively light.

Some departments are expected to deal directly with the media more often than others, perhaps related to the operational nature of the work (for example, the departments of Defence, Foreign Affairs) or to their expert roles, which are almost statutorily independent (for example, the Treasury Secretary).

More important, however, are the attitude of the minister and the personal style of the secretary. Ken Henry (Treasury Secretary) evidently has more licence from his minister under the Rudd Government and is a confident public speaker, but his public role is still a long way from John Stone’s regular and frank briefing of the press in the 1970s and early 1980s. In my time, the secretaries who most often made public speeches were Allan Hawke (defence), Peter Shergold and I.