Australian Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd has resigned, following months of scrutiny over emails he sent to a right-wing think tank.
Mr Lloyd, who will finish in the role on August 8, advised the governor-general of his intention to stand down on Monday.
The commissioner was a director with the Institute of Public Affairs before being appointed to his role.
A series of emails released under freedom of information showed Mr Lloyd had sent on to the IPA examples of public service employment conditions the think tank could argue were overly generous.
Mr Lloyd said it was publicly available information from enterprise bargaining agreements and he was passing them on to the IPA's John Roskam in a personal capacity.
A Senate estimates committee heard an allegation against Mr Lloyd was received by the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Martin Parkinson on December 13 and on January 11 it was sent to the Merit Protection Commissioner, whose role is to inquire into breaches of the public service code of conduct.
The federal opposition has questioned Mr Lloyd's impartiality.
"It was inevitable that Mr Lloyd was going to have to resign," Labor senator Murray Watt said.
"This is now the third occasion that one of (Jobs Minister) Michaelia Cash's direct reports has had to resign as a result of their politicised union-bashing activity."
Former workplace minister Eric Abetz said Mr Lloyd was an "extraordinarily experienced" public servant, having served as a deputy secretary in the Howard government and as the Australian Building and Construction Commissioner.
"Over and above his highly competent work as the commissioner, John is also a thoroughly decent person and someone who deserves great credit for having dedicated so much of his life to the service of our nation," Senator Abetz said.
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