Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd has been accused of not protecting a public servant who complained about Jamie Briggs.

Mr Briggs resigned from his position as Minister for Cities and Built Environment during the end of year break after allegations of misconduct with a public servant in a Hong Kong bar.

Photos of the incident were splashed across front pages as News Corp moved to bring down Mr Briggs, which meant that an innocent public servant had a photo of herself and private text messages published in a national newspaper.

In an estimates hearing this week, Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd was asked why the commission provided almost no help to her and other public servants in similar situations.

Mr Lloyd said the Public Service Commission was only involved only if a public servant had done something wrong.
In this case, he said, responsibility for the welfare of the consular staffer rests with her boss, Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade secretary Peter Varghese.

Mr Lloyd said his deputy had spoken with DFAT about the welfare of the public servant, and heard it was satisfactory.

Senator Penny Wong asked the commissioner if he “concerned [himself] at all as to how information regarding a public servant and a photograph relating to the night in question made it into the public arena?”

Mr Lloyd said: “No, I haven't ... I'm concerned a public servant or anybody has information displayed without their approval.”

Senator Wong accused him of “ducking responsibilities”.

“I do wonder what your job is,” she said.

“Get your assistant to make a phone call to someone else and that discharges your responsibilities, does it?

“Public servant treated really badly, public service commissioner does nothing, except to get his deputy to make a phone call to [DFAT].”

The Community and Public Sector Union has called for the privacy of the staff member to be protected.

“People should feel safe to raise their concerns without this kind of blowback,” Assistant CPSU national secretary Michael Tull told Fairfax reporters.

“If this kind of gross breach of privacy had come from a senior departmental official, or any other public sector worker for that matter, that person would be facing serious repercussions.

”It's never easy for a person who works in the public sector to raise inappropriate behaviour, especially when a politician is involved.

“All Australian workers should feel they are safe from this sort of unreasonable treatment.”