"Trust me"

Woe is the citizen who accepts that statement from a public servant in lieu of transparent accountability to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

There is only one reason for a public servant to hide their standards and accountability.

It is because their standards and accountability need to be hidden.

There is no need to hide accountability. On the contrary
there is every reason to make accountability as transparent and
public as it can be made. They should be proud of it.

They wouldn't be hiding from an impartial audit,
unless there is a reason to hide from an impartial audit.
They don't what their standards and accountability exposed
to the light of day. For a reason.

If you are looking for competent and honest public service,
"trustworthiness" runs a far distant second to
honest accountability to meaningful standards
of conduct and competence.

There is no need to have to "trust" a public servant,
if you know that that public servant is accountable to
meaningful standards of conduct and competence
by an impartial system
powerful enough to hold them accountable even against their will.

If a public servant, denies you transparent and honest
accountability, and instead offers you "trust me",
you should turn down the deal. They are hiding something.

The terms of public service are the prerogative of the public
not of the public servant.

It is not OK for a senior public servant to insist that you
trust him to look under every rock; if he then refuses to
tell you what he found under those rocks,
and what he did with what he found.

The unwillingness to offer real transparency in the clean up
of the leadership of the APS, reinforces the perception that
it is at best, a Chinese fire drill of the incompetent and the
corrupt.

An impartial audit is the only solution on the table that
guarantees transparency and honesty;
"trust me" does not.

An impartial audit is the only thing that the leadership of
the APS can do that would actually prove that
they are actually holding themselves accountable
to meaningful standards of conduct and competence.

There is no equivalent gesture.

Either they audit, or they are hiding something.