...figure government's around bend? (6)
I believe the answer is:
statue
'figure' is the definition.
(statue is a kind of figure)
'government's around bend?' is the wordplay.
'government' becomes 'state' (state is a kind of government).
'around' indicates putting letters inside.
'bend?' becomes 'u' (a U-bend is a kind of bend - pipe under sink).
'state' going around 'u' is 'STATUE'.
(Other definitions for statue that I've seen before include "Sculptured figure" , "Use tat (anag.)" , "As created by 3dn" , "Solid representation of the human form" , "Model figure" .)