2027 Pacific Legal Policy Champions and Twinning Programs – how to apply

We expect participants to fully participate in the programs. That will include sharing your knowledge, experiences and actively engaging in discussions, activities and presentations.

Each participant will be asked to facilitate a brief reflection discussion on one or more days and, as a group, coordinate and practice delivering components of the Legal Policy Development Course.

Participants are expected to deliver the Legal Policy Development Course to their home agencies, or across government, within 3 months of their return home, and provide the Attorney-General's Department with an attendance sheet of participants to whom the course was delivered.

We expect participants to actively engage with our network of Pacific Policy alumni and encourage contributions to Talanoa, the Pacific Islands Law Officers' Network (PILON) newsletter, about their experience with the program or reports on current legal policy issues.

We also expect that you will comply with the terms of the Australian Public Service (APS) Values and Code of Conduct, as set out below.

Our monitoring and evaluation processes are important tools to ensure the Policy Champions and Twinning Programs strengthen the capacity of Pacific law and justice and policing agencies. We will require participants and their managers to complete written surveys and/or short interviews to help us track professional development to measure program effectiveness. We will also seek feedback from participants during their placement to help us identify possible improvements to the program.

We may ask you and your managers to provide us with feedback at different intervals to help us track professional development and project milestones to measure program effectiveness and to help us identify possible improvements to the program.

The Australian Public Service (APS) expects that all employees will behave at all times in a way which upholds the APS Values. The APS Values are:

Impartial

The APS is apolitical and provides the government with advice that is frank, honest, timely and based on the best available evidence.

Committed to service

The APS is professional, objective, innovative and efficient, and works collaboratively to achieve the best results for the Australian community and the government.

Accountable

The APS is open and accountable to the Australian community under the law and within the framework of Ministerial responsibility.

Respectful

The APS respects all people, including their rights and their heritage.

Ethical

The APS demonstrates leadership, is trustworthy, and acts with integrity, in all that it does.

Stewardship

The APS builds its capability and institutional knowledge, and supports the public interest now and into the future, by understanding the long-term impacts of what it does.

All APS employees are required to comply with the Code of Conduct, including to behave at all times in a way that upholds the APS Values. A breach of the Code of Conduct can result in sanctions, ranging from a reprimand to termination of employment.

The Code of Conduct requires that an APS employee must:

• behave honestly and with integrity in connection with APS employment;
• act with care and diligence in connection with APS employment;
• when acting in connection with APS employment, treat everyone with respect and courtesy, and without harassment;
• when acting in connection with APS employment, comply with all applicable Australian laws;
• comply with any lawful and reasonable direction given by someone in the employee's Agency who has authority to give the direction;
• maintain appropriate confidentiality about dealings that the employee has with any Minister or Minister's member of staff;
• take reasonable steps to avoid any conflict of interest (real or apparent) and disclose details of any material personal interest of the employee in connection with the employee's APS employment;
• use Commonwealth resources in a proper manner and for a proper purpose;
• not provide false or misleading information in response to a request for information that is made for official purposes in connection with the employee's APS employment;
• not improperly use inside information or the employee's duties, status, power or authority:
  1. to gain, or seek to gain, a benefit or an advantage for the employee or any other person; or
  2. to cause, or to seek to cause, detriment to the employee's Agency, the Commonwealth or any other person.
• at all times behave in a way that upholds the APS Values and Employment Principles, and the integrity and good reputation of the employee's Agency and the APS;
• while on duty overseas, at all times behave in a way that upholds the good reputation of Australia; and
• comply with any other conduct requirement that is prescribed by the regulations.

You can find further information on the Australian Public Service Commission.

The Attorney-General's Department will pay for all travel and reasonable living expenses associated with each of the programs, including:

• return economy flights between the officer's home country and Canberra
• appropriate visa cost (if applicable)
• accommodation for the period of the placement
• weekly allowance to cover meals and public transport each day.

Successful applicants are responsible for obtaining a valid passport and ensuring all necessary forms, including any visa applications, are correctly completed and returned on time. Participation is subject to the receipt of a visa and completing security screening from the Australian Government. Further information will be provided to successful applicants with the letter of offer.

The department will provide limited insurance for the period of the program(s). This covers illness, accidents, injury and medical emergencies while participating in the program(s) (provided that such incidents are not related to a pre-existing medical condition), loss of baggage and trip interruption. It will not cover activities taken outside the program or while on personal travel. It is strongly recommended that all successful participants obtain their own travel insurance for the duration of the programs. If you have pre-existing health conditions which could impact your fitness to participate in the programs or to fly internationally, please advise us so we can seek advice from our insurer.

For the Twinning Program, to meet the requirements of our security screening process to work in our department, successful applicants will need to provide various documents to prove their identity, education and employment. This may include certified copies of your passport, qualifications, police check and references.

The Attorney-General's Department must deal with personal information in accordance with the Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), which are set out in the Privacy Act 1988 (Cth). The APPs set out standards, rights and obligations for how we handle and maintain people's personal information. This includes how we collect, store, use and disclose personal information, as well as your rights to access or correct your personal information. Our Privacy Policy outlines how your personal information will be handled, including details on how you can seek access or correction of the personal information that we hold about you. The Privacy Policy also provides you with further information should you need to make a complaint about how we are recording and/or disclosing your personal information.

The Pacific Branch of our department collects personal information from applicants, including their personal contact details and work and education history. The Pacific Branch will use this information to assess applications for the Pacific Legal Policy Programs. Applicants who do not provide this information will not be selected to participate in the programs. We will also use the personal information to undertake security screening and make logistical arrangements for placement of successful applicants in our department for the programs, as well as to identify other professional development opportunities. We may disclose applicants' personal information to other Australian Government entities such as the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade and the Department of Home Affairs as part of the selection and placement process, the arrangement of logistics and to meet reporting obligations under Australian law (Australian Privacy Principle (APP) 5 – Notification of the collection of personal information).

For more information, read our Privacy Policy.