Balancing impartiality and free speech: an empirical study of 'on the ground' experiences of Australian public servants

In this article, we share findings of a study exploring whether and how public servants experience tensions between their duties of impartiality and restraint in public speech and their freedom to participate in political debate, whether and how they experience confusion or uncertainty with respect to the law governing their speech, as well as the impacts of such uncertainty, confusion and tension where it arises. We found that there was significant uncertainty about whether the Australian Public Service (‘APS’) guidelines do in fact allow public servants to make public comments, including on social media. This lack of clarity has profound professional and personal impacts identified by participants, but also was perceived to have broader and more troubling impacts for democracy and the APS itself.