Public Service Medal

Nominations for the Australia Day 2025 round have now closed. To be considered for the King's Birthday 2025 round, nominations must be received by 1 December 2024. 

About the award

The Public Service Medal (PSM) is a prestigious, internationally recognised award within the Australian Honours and Awards system.

Established in 1989, the PSM is awarded in the name of the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia. Nominations are invited twice a year for announcement on Australia Day in January and the King’s Birthday in June. NSW recipients are awarded at an investiture ceremony hosted by the Governor of NSW, where they are presented with their medal. Recipients can use the postnominal 'PSM' to formally acknowledge their achievement.

The PSM recognises outstanding service of public sector employees. Outstanding service can be shown through:
•    service excellence to the public, or to external or internal clients
•    innovation in program, project or policy development
•    leadership, including as a member of a team
•    achievement of more efficient processes, improved productivity or better service delivery.

Outstanding service includes service above and beyond the normal requirements of the position, a special achievement or success in the performance of duty in difficult or unusual circumstances or sustained high-level performance by an individual with a focus on outcomes and recognisable benefits to clients and the workplace. 

All local, state and Commonwealth government public sector employees, regardless of grade or age, are eligible for the PSM. Long service alone is not enough reason for a nomination.

Secretaries, Chief Executive Officers, or in the case of local council, the General Manager, is encouraged to consider nominating employees who deserve official recognition for their outstanding service.

Criteria and eligibility

All employees of the Australian Government and state, territory and local governments are eligible for the medal, except for members of the Defence Force and other uniformed services (police, fire, ambulance and emergency services), who are eligible for comparable awards.* The medal is not reserved for senior officers – it is open to all levels of the public service. Past awards have been made across a broad range of government services and locations.

The PSM may be awarded only once to each recipient. A person who has received a PSM and gives further distinguished service may be nominated subsequently for an award in the Order of Australia. Similarly, a person who has received an award in the Order of Australia is not excluded from receiving a PSM, although at least 5 years should elapse between the announcement of awards, in accordance with established honours convention.

* With regard to the suite of meritorious awards (Public Service Medal, Australian Police Medal, Australian Fire Service Medal, Ambulance Service Medal, Emergency Services Medal, Australian Corrections Medal, Australian Intelligence Medal and the Australian Antarctic Medal), it is possible to be awarded more than one type of meritorious award provided the award recognises different service, for example, a PSM and an AAM). Please contact the Australian Government PSM Secretariat for further advice.

Citizenship

A person does not have to be an Australian citizen to be awarded the PSM. However, if the nominated person is not an Australian Citizen, the Australian Government, in accordance with honours convention, must seek the agreement of the government of the country of citizenship before the award can be made. If the nominee is not an Australian citizen, the nomination should clearly indicate this, and if the nomination is recommended to the Governor-General, the Governor-General’s office will arrange for the Australian Government to seek the appropriate agreement. 

Retired officers

Awards of the PSM can be made to former public servants. Nominations must be submitted within 12 months of ceased service.

Posthumous awards

The PSM is not awarded posthumously.

Nomination preparation and guidelines

Nominations for the PSM for employees of NSW state and local governments should be made to the NSW PSM Committee. Nominations should focus on the key achievements of the individual and/or projects they have been involved with and the impact of their service for example to the community, on colleagues and/or improvements to policies and procedures. 

To be eligible, nominations should include:

1. Nomination statement

This statement should include comprehensive information on what the nominee has done to fulfil the criteria of outstanding service. In addition to including some brief information about the nominee’s positions held and the length of service, the nomination statement should explain how the nominee went ‘above and beyond’ what would normally be expected of someone in the role.

It is recommended nominees clearly and succinctly outline key achievements/projects and link those to the impacts and outcomes that resulted for the particular field or community.

Please focus on  those achievements which have been the most significant and impactful. It should not be assumed that the committee has a detailed knowledge of the area in which the nominee has worked, or a full understanding of the significance of certain achievements so they should be written in context. 

A nomination which explains what the nominee has done and the difference they have made through their outstanding service, could be more compelling than a nomination focused only on listing the nominee’s roles, or their personal attributes. 

    2. Referee statements

Each nomination must be accompanied by at least three signed referee statements that comment on the nominee’s service. The referee statements should detail specific examples of outstanding service by the nominee, be on official letterhead, be signed and dated by the referee, and be no more than two pages long. If the nominee’s services relate to the work of another agency or to a particular community or industry, a referee statement from another agency or from outside the public sector may help the committee in their consideration of the nomination. There is no limit on the number of referee statements that can be provided.

    3. Proof of endorsement 

Each nomination must be endorsed by the relevant Departmental Secretary, Chief Executive Officer or General Manager to be eligible.

As the PSM is part of the Australian Honours system, it is important to provide:

• full personal details of the nominee, including their full name and home address
• full position details, so that the PSM Committee can assess the nomination relative to the duties that would normally be expected of a person at a particular level. This is very important for the committee when reviewing nominations.

Confidentiality

All information provided within a nomination is treated as confidential. If the nomination is successful, the nominee will have the opportunity to advise whether they wish their address details to be published. 

How are nominations considered?

The NSW PSM Committee meets twice a year to consider eligible nominations for the Australia Day and King’s Birthday honours lists. After considering the nominations, the committee recommends a list of proposed recipients to the Premier, who then makes a recommendation to the Governor. The Governor forwards the recommendations to the Governor-General of Australia, who has the authority to approve the awards.

Responsibility for contacting the proposed recipients rests with the Honours Secretariat of Government House, which arranges for the announcement of the awards to appear in the Commonwealth of Australia Gazette. Proposed recipients may decline an award when approached by the Honours Secretariat if they wish. Following the announcement of the awards, the recipient will be notified by Government House of the arrangements for them to receive their medal at an official investiture.