In an organisation known for red tape and delay, sometimes influence is about disruption.
The Canberra Times asked five experts in public administration to recommend the people who are disrupting the way things are done in the federal bureaucracy, before independently consolidating this list based on that feedback and our own observations.
We received recommendations from former senior public servants Peter Woolcott, Natalie James, Rachel Noble and Lisa Paul, as well as former Labor leader Bill Shorten.
This list shows off how disruptors wield fearlessness, whimsy and advocacy to challenge the status quo inside the APS.
The director of the Australian Professional Services Review agency since July 2024, Antonio Di Dio brings decades of work as a general practitioner to the role.
The small agency is responsible for reviewing allegations of inappropriate practice by practitioners when they provide Medicare services, meaning Dr Di Dio holds significant influence in regulating the integrity and reputation of the scheme.
He provides quiet guidance to political leaders and bureaucrats, especially on the topics of mental health and neurodiversity.
Dr Di Dio, who was already recognised for his work on mental health and wellbeing for medical professionals before this gig, has been vocal about the issue inside the APS, including by encouraging managers to take better care of their staff to prevent burnout.
He's also part of a network of senior leaders who advocate on behalf of neurodiverse public servants, and has been vocal about making workplaces more inclusive.
An adviser in Prime Minister and Cabinet's government division, Andrew Pfeiffer is best known for co-founding the Public Sector Neurodiversity Community of Practice in 2022 with Robin Edmonds.
That network has focused on making the public sector more inclusive for neurodivergent people.
For years, Mr Pfeiffer has openly shared his experience since receiving what he has described as a life-changing autism diagnosis at age 29.
He has also promoted the strengths of neurodivergent employees to leaders across the service, as well as creating a community.
That work culminated in a Public Service Medal in September 2025, which he accepted from Governor-General Sam Mostyn in one of his characteristic brightly-patterned suits.
Outside of Canberra, Julie Inman Grant is likely the best known name on this list.
The e-Safety Commissioner found notoriety when she took on Elon Musk, demanding the entrepreneur remove footage of a violent terror incident from his platform X. She didn't win that battle, but she has won others.
Since then, she has also shepherded in Australia's world-leading social media ban for children aged under 16.
She's seen the inside of some of the biggest tech companies - Microsoft, Twitter, Adobe - and for a decade has been challenging them to take better care of the people they profit from.
She intends to stand down at the end of her term next January, but it's clear she's had an impact.
She's accomplished all this - and makes this public service list - despite not knowing "what an EL1 or an SES was" when she walked into the job in 2017 (by her own admission).
Jim Betts refuses to steer clear of topics that scare most senior public servants into silence, and does so with an irritated nonchalance that says, "And why wouldn't I?"
There's his preference not to wear a tie at Senate estimates, a practice he has dutifully upheld since drawing the ire of Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie.
He responded similarly when Senator McKenzie questioned his decision to wear an Aboriginal flag T-shirt to work in the lead-up to the Voice referendum.
But it's an all-staff email he sat down to write in the summer of 2025 that perhaps best sums up the kind of leader he is.
"I spent time reading a tedious bunch of articles in the media about whether 'wokeness' was 'dead'," the Infrastructure secretary wrote to staff, in an email that inspired a public servant to share it publicly.
"I have no opinion on this matter, other than that kindness never goes out of fashion and maybe we should think about diversity and inclusion in those terms," Mr Betts wrote before going on to point out that a series of Australian laws made discrimination unlawful in many forms.
This is likely not his most memorable dispatch though. A 2005 profile of him in The Age, while he was Victoria's Director of Public Transport, quotes another of his all-staff emails.
"I was alarmed last week to find a cockroach in my office," he wrote to staff at the time.
"I thought about demanding a full-scale public inquiry, but then realised it probably came to work with me in my briefcase. Anyway, whatever, his name's Colin and I know you'll all make him welcome." Further updates followed.
Alongside plenty of public sector experience, Mr Betts is known for a focus on improving culture at the places he leads and raising bold ideas inside and outside of the Secretaries Board.
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