Program clash confuses Canberra - Sydney Morning Herald

Tony Abbott: Programme. Photo: Melissa Adams

Federal bureaucrats are so keen to demonstrate their willingness to serve the Abbott government they are changing the way they spell.

It is understood senior staff in some departments began changing ''program'' to ''programme'' in their briefs for incoming ministers, even before they were sworn in.

There is now widespread confusion in Canberra about how to write the highly politicised word.

Prime Minister Tony Abbott's office said it had not told the public service to alter the spelling.

However, his preference for the longer word is well known, and several ministers' offices demanded last month their departments get with the ''programme''.

Some public servants have since changed text on websites and in government documents, though others are awaiting instruction. John Howard issued a memo after he won office in 1996, telling the bureaucracy to avoid what he felt was the American ''program'' in favour of the British ''programme''.

In fact, the English used ''program'' for hundreds of years - it appears in Shakespeare's works - and only switched en masse to ''programme'' in the 19th century. When Kevin Rudd came to power in 2007, he reversed the move.

The government's latest style manual makes no explicit ruling on the spelling, though it refers to ''program'' throughout.

Senior public servants had noted the Coalition used ''programme'' consistently in opposition and began preparing for a switch in August.

When Mr Abbott issued a statement on September 18 that contained ''programmes'', some agencies interpreted it as an instruction to change their spelling.

Some bureaucrats have expressed frustration at the work created by the apparently whimsical switch, with one senior officer telling Fairfax Media it was ''trivial f---ing nonsense''.

The Australian National Dictionary Centre's director, Amanda Laugesen, said on Wednesday that a return to ''programme'' was odd.

''It's an old-fashioned way of spelling it and it would be unusual to adopt it,'' she said.

The centre adopted ''program'' recently but notes ''programme'' is also acceptable. ''It's more efficient and that's the way spelling tends to head,'' Dr Laugesen said.