MEDIA RELEASE
28 June 2019

IPAA WA's Achievement Awards Celebrate Outstanding Public Service Achievements

The Institute of Public Administration Australia WA (IPAA WA) celebrated individual and organisational excellence at its eighth annual Achievement Awards presentation ceremony on Friday the 28th of June 2019 at the Hyatt Regency Perth. The Achievement Awards is the only awards system in Western Australia to recognise both individual and organisational achievements across all three tiers of government, the not-for-profit and tertiary education sectors.

IPAA WA President and Co-Chair of the Awards judging panel, Mr Colin Murphy PSM FIPAA, hosted the 2019 Achievement Awards. He welcomed guests including IPAA WA’s Co-Vice Patron the Hon. Liza Harvey MLA, Leader of the Opposition, and Ms Amber-Jade Sanderson MLA, representing IPAA WA’s Co-Vice Patron the Hon. Mark McGowan MLA.

Mr Murphy commented on the high calibre of nominations he has seen come through the Achievement Awards in his role as co-chair over the past two years, “I have always believed we have a fantastic public sector here in WA and one of the joys of being in involved with IPAA is the opportunity to celebrate excellence and achievements in our public sector”, he said.

This year two new awards were introduced to recognise the ever evolving public sector – The Australian Evaluation Society Award for Best Practice in Public Sector Evaluation, and the Office of Digital Government Award for Best Practice in Digital Transformation.

As a testament to the amount of collaborative work being done within the sector and by the sector with non-government organisations, multiple winners were announced for the two collaboration award categories. “We received a large number of nominations once again this year in this category, and the judges were particularly impressed by their quality. The judges believed that more than one project deserved recognition, so this year we are awarding a gold, silver and two bronze awards for the top four projects”, Mr Murphy said about the Best Practice in Collaboration between Government and Non-Government Organisations award category.

The Awards Ceremony presented 20 Awards across 16 categories, with The Department of Fire and Emergency Services (DFES) picking up three Awards, including the Murdoch University Award for the Leader of the Year working in State or Federal Government which went to DFES Commissioner, Darren Klemm AFSM, recognising his achievements at DFES.

The final award of the afternoon, the IPAA WA Patron’s Award, is nominated by the IPAA WA Council and represents the highest accolade in public administration in WA. This year, the IPAA WA Patron’s Award went to former Public Sector Commissioner, Mal Wauchope AO for his significant contribution to the State and the sector in a career spanning 40 years. Mr Wauchope served as Western Australia’s inaugural Public Sector Commissioner for 10 years, until his retirement last year. He implemented policy under eleven Premiers from both sides of the political fence, and his contributions were recognised in 2017 when he was made an Officer of the Order of Australia.

The 2019 Achievement Awards featured a variety of winners from across WA. Mr Murphy concluded proceedings for another year, “I again wish to congratulate all the winners of an Achievement Award this year. Your commitment to best practice in the WA public service is a positive accomplishment that deserves recognition. I also wish to acknowledge those individuals and organisations that were nominated but did not win an award today. I commend you for your efforts throughout the year and encourage you nominate again for the 2020 Awards”.

StatePlus, one of Australia’s leading providers of financial planning services, were Principal Sponsor of the Awards this year, and they were joined by other leading organisations, sponsoring various awards.

Congratulations to 2019 Achievement Award winners. For a full list of winners, please visit http://www.wa.ipaa.org.au/Achievement-Awards-Winners.aspx