More on comings and goings from the senior ranks of the public service under the Howard government. A discussion chain at the ANU harks back to an old Financial Review feature: “The Prime Minister has made his decision on secretaries, and there is no place for you.”

With these words the head of the Prime Minister’s Department, Michael Keating, informed six of the nation’s most senior bureaucrats of John Howard’s decision to sack them barely a week after the Coalition government came to office in March 1996.

The sacking of one-third of the nation’s top public servants shocked the bureaucracy: Chris Conybeare (Immigration), Peter Core (Transport), Michael Costello (Foreign Affairs), Steven Duckett (Human Services), Stuart Hamilton (Environment), and Derek Volker (Employment) were sacked without having any opportunity to demonstrate whether they could work with the incoming Government.

It was, for the bureaucracy, a devastating first shot in the Coalition’s campaign to impose its will and its values on the Public Service after 13 years of Labor rule, and it has set a bleak tone for government-bureaucratic relations since…

The years have dimmed the memories, but is this completely accurate? Didn’t Michael Costello choose to go? Did Codd go earlier? If you’ve got anything to share on our pulped mandarins, please flick it over to christian@crikey.com.au.