The Act regulates the employment of federal public servants in Australia.

[1] The Act establishes obligations of the Australian Government toward its public servants, and establishes the code of conduct to which they must adhere, including a requirement that they act apolitically, and not disseminate or exploit government information without authorization.

[2] Such statutes arose historically as an effort to eliminate the spoils system from democratic politics.

In November 1996, Peter Reith issued a discussion paper, Towards a best practice Australian Public Service,[4] that, among other things, recommended key elements which might need to be incorporated into a new streamlined and principles-based Public Service Act.

[6] The constitutionality of the code of conduct of the Act was challenged in 2019 in the High Court case Comcare v Banerji, which ruled unanimously that the code was compatible with Australia's freedom of political communication doctrine.