Francis Bland

Francis Armand Bland, CMG (24 August 18829 April 1967) was an Australian public servant, academic and politician. He was a pioneer of the field of public administration in Australia, serving as the founding chair in public administration at the University of Sydney (1935–1947). He was a member of the House of Representatives from 1951 to 1961, representing the Liberal Party.

Early life Bland was born on 24 August 1882 in Macdonaldtown, New South Wales. He was the first of six children born to Eva Emily (née Strehz) and Charles Edward Bland. His father was employed as a railway shunter at the time of his birth, but later farmed at Pambula.

Bland attended public schools at Greigs Flat, Peakhurst and Kogarah. He began working as a clerk in 1897 with Bosch, Barthel & Co., then in 1901 joined the New South Wales public service as a taxation clerk in the Treasury Department.

Views and ideas Bland was an advocate of open government and the independence of administrators from legislators. He favoured an increased role for parliamentary committees in the supervision of government, for public officials to be given the opportunity to appear before parliament, and for officials being allowed to publish their views under their own names. He also advocated for formal advisory boards to be constituted to advise government departments.

Politics

Bland was elected to the House of Representatives at the 1951 federal election, aged 68. He ran for the Liberal Party after previously standing unsuccessfully for Senate preselection. In 1961, he lost Liberal preselection to John Cockle, with his term concluding at the 1961 election.

Bland was an influential figure as chairman of the Joint Statutory Committee on Public Accounts from 1952 to 1960. The committee had been in abeyance for 20 years after being abolished during the Great Depression by the Lyons government. Bland interpreted the committee's mandate broadly and used it to review government policy in general. During the 1951–1954 parliamentary term it published 15 reports on a wide range of topics. Several reports were said to have "embarrassed ministers and senior public servants alike" and Bland as chairman was said to have made it one of "the most effective committees that has ever existed in an Australian parliament".

Personal life Bland was married four times and was predeceased by three of his wives. Henry Bland, the only child of his first marriage, also became a senior public servant.