Top public servant urges ‘more doing, less reviewing’ after 70 inquiries in Labor’s first term, FoI papers reveal

Exclusive: Health department secretary Blair Comley tells minister Mark Bultler to stop commissioning costly and time-consuming inquiries

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One of the nation's most respected public service chiefs has told Labor to stop commissioning so many government reviews, warning the costly and time-consuming inquiries risk swamping bureaucrats and unduly heightening public expectations.

The secretary of the Department of Health, Disability and Ageing, Blair Comley, has urged the health minister, Mark Butler, to allow public servants to adopt a more implementation and less analysis mindset in the coming term of parliament, after more than 70 reviews were commissioned, consulted-on or published in Labor's first three years in office.

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