The Coalition government has revealed some of its taste in departmental leadership, appointing two new heads from the same university and who were initially hired by the same senior public servant.

Gordon de Brouwer will head the Environment Department, though his training and experience are in finance. Mr de Brouwer comes from jobs at the Reserve Bank and Treasury and as a professor of economics at ANU's Asia-Pacific school of economics and governance. He is considered an expert in international and Asian economics. His environmental credentials are harder to track down.

Mr de Brouwer was brought into the public service by senior servant Terry Moran during his tenure in the Prime Minister's Department. Another of Mr Moran’s recruits is fellow ANU alumnus; well-known Canberra lawyer Renee Leon.

Both have been awarded Public Service Medals for their contributions.Ms Leon has been promoted to department secretary level, taking the reins at the Department of Employment. She has previous worked in the federal Attorney-General's Department, at the ACT Department of Justice and Community Safety, established the ACT Human Rights Commission, was a founding convener of the Women's Legal Centre and a chairperson of the Welfare Rights and Legal Centre in Canberra.