The public service is misunderstood and deserves more respect, according to one of the nation's most senior former diplomats.
Public servants need a bit more love from the public and politicians is the message from Ian Kemish who was the head of Australia's consular service and also an ambassador.
"We've all allowed a certain image, a certain narrative, to develop about public servants in this country," he said.
And that false narrative is that "they are well-paid, have cushy jobs and that they live in a remote place called Canberra."
In the case of servants of his own former ministry (the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade), "there's a misplaced perception of our diplomatic life".
"Even our politicians share the perception that a diplomat's life is about cocktail parties and residencies, but there's a very different, challenging side to it."
To counter the view, he cites the public servant who literally cleaned up in 2002. "I think of the young consul in Bali who spent the first hours after the bombing mopping the blood off the floor of the Bali international medical centre and holding the hands of the dying."
Mr Kemish - or Professor Kemish as he now is - was the head of DFAT's consular section which helps Australian citizens abroad when they get into trouble. He has just published his memoirs, The Consul: an insider's account from Australia's diplomatic front line.
In it, he relates how he thinks successive governments have neglected Australia's diplomatic efforts. For the first two decades of this century, DFAT's funding "almost flatlined", he wrote. "By contrast, budgetary allocations for defence, along with the intelligence and security agencies, grew by factors of between three and five."
He concedes that after the September 11, 2001 attacks on the US, some of the favouring of intelligence and defence was justified, but he also thinks squeezing DFAT's funding was because of a "lingering and completely misplaced public perception of cocktail-sipping diplomats".
He thinks the pandemic has changed perceptions so funds are now being increased.
The demand is there. Every day, three or four Australians die abroad, and their families invariably seek the help of the consular service. Two or three Australians get arrested every day somewhere on this planet, and their plight often ends of up on a consul's desk. There are about 400 Australians in foreign jails.
"This work throws up extraordinary daily challenges," Mr Kemish said.
The pandemic presented countless challenges to diplomats abroad. "While the rest of us were in relative security behind our hard borders in Australia, most DFAT officers and their families remained at their posts, experiencing never-ending periods of isolation and home-schooling in countries where the virus was rampant.
"It rarely occurred to their critics that in some of our overseas missions, consular teams were depleted because staff members had themselves been infected by the coronavirus."
To the public, he would say: "Try to understand better what these people do and why they are there, and how they help ensure that Australia is the kind of society it is."
And he asks for help from Australian travellers. "Have realistic expectations" (don't call up the embassy if you can't remember your password), and "do what you should to look after yourself." He is amazed at how many Australians travel without insurance. "It's about what happens if you die or are hospitalised. Elderly parents have to mortgage their homes to support sons and daughters and loved ones in trouble overseas."
And to his former colleagues in the public service, he would say: "Public servants in Canberra can take a great deal of pride in how they supported the nation in difficult times, including during the pandemic.
"I think most public servants understand that."
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