Prime ministers' chiefs of staff: coping with wild treachery and weirdness

Abstract

The position of the Chief of Staff (from now on, CoS) to the Australian prime minister (from now on, PM) has an almost 40-year history, yet little is known about the nature of the job. 1 Despite its undoubted significance, until relatively recently the post of the PM’s CoS has been firmly in the shadows of Australian politics. Its occupants are conscious that it exists to serve and support the PM and his or her government rather than as an independent entity. There has been no systematic study of the PM’s CoS or how the 26 incumbents have carried out their job. 2

This chapter has four parts. The first part sketches briefly our theoretical approach and methods. The second part offers brief illustrative portraits of CoSs since 1972, identifying their several differing conceptions of the job. The third part discusses the common ground between these several understandings of the job. We discuss their shared beliefs, the recurring dilemmas that confront PMs and their CoS, and the special relationship between some CoSs and the PMs they serve. The fourth part asks why the beliefs and practices of the job vary and discusses the personalities of the individuals, events, the skills of the CoS, and expectations of the role. We conclude that the skills and organisational resources of the CoS and prime minister’s Office (from now on PMO) are necessary but not sufficient for coping with ‘blasts of wild treachery and weirdness’ that affect all prime ministers at some point. Their ability to cope and survive the demands of political leadership is both contextual and contingent. It depends on the fit between the PM and his or her CoS and their individual and complementary skills, but it also depends on their ability to apprehend and navigate the inherent dependencies that characterise life at the centre of core executive networks.