This document backgrounds the establishment of the Office of State Services Commissioner. Beginning at 1840, it charts the governance arrangements over the following 70 years that led to the Public Service Act of 1912. This Act laid the foundations of the Public Service as we know it today: it set up a non-political and unified career Public Service; non-political through powers of appointment, promotion and dismissal being entrusted to an independent body - the Public Service Commissioner.

Quotations in this document are sourced from The Quest for Efficiency: The origins of the State Services Commission, author Alan Henderson. Published by the State Services Commission 1990.