The Commonwealth Awards for Excellence in Risk Management (the risk awards) help promote the importance of risk management in the design and delivery of all government activities. The risk awards showcase leading and proven risk management practices by Commonwealth entities, with the aim of these being adopted by other entities, to enhance risk maturity across the Australian Government.
The Hon. Patrick Gorman, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Assistant Minister for the Public Service, and Assistant Minister to the Attorney-General delivered an inspiring keynote address and presented the awards to the deserving winners at the ceremony held on Tuesday, 3 December 2024 in Canberra.
Photograph of the Hon. Patrick Gorman and Deputy Secretary Richard Windeyer with the Award recipients.
Photograph of the Hon. Patrick Gorman delivering the keynote address.
Award for Excellence in Risk Management (Enterprise-wide)
The Enterprise-wide category recognises entities that demonstrate excellence in embedding a consistent approach to managing risk.
Winner – Australian Prudential Regulation Authority
Australian Prudential Regulation Authority’s (APRA) nomination demonstrated an innovative and powerful initiative which has engaged staff across their enterprise. Their ‘speak-up’ campaign has cut through the ‘frozen middle’ to make an impact and reshape their risk culture, which also feeds strongly into integrity.
APRA’s ‘top-down’ approach provides leadership support to instil a strong risk culture and recognise good work. Aligned strongly to their broader business, their meaningful tools and risk reduction pathways shines a spotlight on effective risk management and their strong risk culture.
Photograph of the Hon. Patrick Gorman and Deputy Secretary Richard Windeyer with representatives from Australian Prudential Regulation Authority.
Highly Commended – Australian Federal Police
The Australian Federal Police’s (AFP) compelling nomination demonstrates departmental resilience to drive a strong risk culture. Their small risk team is enthusiastic about embedding risk-based decisions at all levels. They operate in a challenging environment, trying to drive cultural buy-in across a workforce of risk professionals who operate in a ‘need-to-know’ environment. Despite this, they have successfully uplifted their enterprise approach through the sharing of risk templates of tools and continue to move up the risk maturity scale.
The team have created cut-through where small actions have created impactful meanings. AFP’s broad approach can be shared across the Commonwealth for other entities to learn from.
Photograph of the Hon. Patrick Gorman and Deputy Secretary Richard Windeyer with representatives from the Australian Federal Police.
Award for Excellence in Risk Management (Risk Initiative)
The Risk Initiative category recognises entities that demonstrate excellence in their risk management approach for a specific program, project, or service delivery initiative.
Winner – Australian Taxation Office
The Australian Taxation Office’s (ATO) nomination for their Advice and Support Program demonstrated meticulous large-scale program management with a well-established risk management framework for the rebuild of the external ato.gov.au and design of the internal Enterprise Knowledge Management websites.
The ATO team demonstrated not only explementary risk management, but also project management and change management resulting in a successful high-profile IT delivery.
Photograph of the representatives from the Australian Taxation Office with the Hon. Patrick Gorman.
Highly Commended – Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts
Infrastructure’s nomination for their oversight and management of shared risks with the Northern Australia Infrastructure Facility demonstrated practical examples of managing shared risks and responsibilities in a complex environment where purposes, conflicts of interests and risk appetites are not always aligned.
This nomination was highly commended for their shared risk frameworks and development of a strong risk culture.
Photograph of the representatives from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts with the Hon. Patrick Gorman.
Award for Excellence in Risk Management (Integrity)
Each year the Risk in Focus category focuses on a different area of risk management. The focus for 2024 was ‘Integrity Risks’.
Integrity in the APS is the pursuit of high standards of professionalism - both in what we do and in how we do it. It is the foundation of trust on which public service effectiveness is built.
Through this awards category, Finance sought to showcase excellence in an entity’s approach to the management of integrity risks.
Winner – Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts
In 2022, Infrastructure launched its Integrity Strategy, which includes an Integrity Framework. The department’s leadership team acknowledged that a culture and capability uplift was needed if there was going to be a meaningful shift in the way Integrity was managed in the department.
Infrastructure’s nomination showcased a comprehensive approach and strong focus on culture to embed integrity as part of their organisational language.
Photograph of the representatives from the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.
