The odds of a significant post-election reshuffle of agency heads and senior public servants have shortened significantly after the secretary of the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water, David Fredericks, revealed he is retiring from the bureaucracy to move to the Snowy Mountains town of Jindabyne.

In a departmental note to staff and stakeholders issued Monday morning, Fredericks said that after “five and a half years as secretary and eight years as a deputy secretary before that, it is time for me to move on to another phase of my life.”

The retirement leaves two key APS vacancies open, one of which is for a replacement for the apex bureaucrat role of secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.

As a portfolio, leading DCCEEW has arguably been one of the most bruising jobs in the bureaucracy because literally every part of the mega-department is very heavily politically and ideologically contested and routinely weaponised by the left and right, both internally and externally.

Aside from the persistence of the political climate wars, and their adjacency to the battle between fossil fuel supporters and backers of renewable energy, the array of policy interconnections and connected effects rates is one of public administration’s most complex, as exemplified by an election battle on energy costs and the cost of living.

Fredericks led the creation of the four-headed Hydra in 2022, having previously been the secretary of the Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources from February 3, 2020. Before that, Fredericks was secretary of the Department of the Environment and Energy from late 2019.

While the initial policy thinking was to bring energy and climate closer together so that policies were better informed and did not jar or conflict, in reality, the portfolio became a platform for ministers and governments to prosecute their oscillating agendas under one roof.

A barrister by training, Fredericks rose through the bureaucracy’s ranks after spending time as a seconded ministerial adviser and chief-of-staff during the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd years, including time as an adviser with the Prime Minister’s Office.

“It has been an honour for me to serve the government and the people of Australia during my time as secretary and indeed throughout my public service career,” Fredericks said.

“I have been especially privileged to work with and lead the professional, committed, passionate, and resilient public servants who make the Australian Public Service such an influential institution in Australia, to the benefit of both government and the community.

Fredericks said that “during the term of the Albanese government, I have been very proud to lead the foundation of DCCEEW, and to consolidate its role as a crucial portfolio delivering some of the most important priorities of the government’s agenda and tackling some of the most critical challenges for the Australian people.”

In an impeccably worded observation on the value of public service that might otherwise be unremarkable but for an election result that utterly repudiated the notion of gutting the APS as a policy priority, Fredericks let his dryness shine.

“I was particularly proud to have led the then Department of Industry, Science, Energy and Resources throughout the period of the COVID crisis. We should always recognise the magnificent common cause, resilience, commitment and sheer hard work that all of us in the Australian Public Service demonstrated in those difficult days. I firmly believe the Australian people do,” he said.

We should always recognise the magnificent common cause, resilience, commitment and sheer hard work that all of us in the Australian Public Service demonstrated in those difficult days. I firmly believe the Australian people do.

Murray Watt, Fredericks’ new minister for the next six weeks anyway, was effusive in his praise of the outgoing public service journeyman.

“Mr Fredericks has served Australia well and in the finest traditions of the public service. Whether it’s been navigating the global energy crisis or charting Australia’s decarbonisation journey, Mr Fredericks has been a source of sound and practical policy advice for the government,” Watt said.

“A secretary under successive governments of both persuasions, Mr Fredericks retires with the thanks and appreciation of several former and serving ministers for his professionalism, dedication and unwavering commitment to good policy.”

Watt hailed Fredericks as an exemplar, saying, “his leadership of the department shows our public service is home to the nation’s big thinkers, those who want to drive progress in the pursuit of a better, fairer Australia.”

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David Fredericks: Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water