MEDIA RELEASE
For immediate release
13 December 2004
CAREER PUBLIC SERVANTS INTERVIEWED FOR ORAL HISTORY PROJECT
Interviews with six career public servants about the culture and work practices of the public service prior to 1986 will
be handed over to the Turnbull Library's Oral History Centre this week.
The project was funded by the State Services Commission and carried out by Megan Hutching, Senior Oral Historian for the
History Group of the Ministry for Culture and Heritage.
'There has been a great change since the mid-1980s in the way that people have treated the public service as a career
and in the way that government agencies are organised,' Ms Hutching said.
'The aim of this project was to record the experiences of people who had a long career in the public service before that
time, particularly in departments that no longer exist.
'The interviews are chronological, beginning with the interviewee's life before beginning work, and then working through
their public service careers. They cover the way in which departments were organised and how work was done, along with
the social life and customs of departments.
'I was also interested in recording the interviewees' thoughts about the institution of the public service itself and
the role of public servants.'
ENDS