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Two decades ago Australia was in the vanguard of the new public management (NPM): departments were restructured, markets for public services were created or strengthened and service delivery was outsourced as reformers set about applying private sector principles in the public service. This article explores the impact of NPM thinking on institutional arrangements within the Australian federal bureaucracy. To establish whether NPM remains the dominant influence on thinking in Australia, a recent major review of the Australian public service is also examined. The article concludes that while the bases of the original NPM reforms remain substantially in place, NPM orthodoxy is being eroded by new ways of thinking about public administration.