The Australian Labor Party has set out a range of election promises relating to the Australian Public Service (APS) including abolishing staffing caps, creating more secure work and addressing the gender pay gap.
Announced by the Opposition’s Shadow Minister for the Public Service, Senator Katy Gallagher, the proposed programs were designed to recognise the unique and essential role of the APS in designing and delivering services for the public good and in developing policy solutions to the challenges faced by Australia.
“Labor is committed to building a stronger Public Service that delivers better outcomes for the community,” Senator Gallagher (pictured) said.
“(It) delivers frank and fearless advice to Government, acts as a model employer, and contributes to building a fairer and more inclusive Australia,” she said.
“The APS should show active leadership in addressing systemic inequality and (Labor) will take steps to increase the proportions of First Nations peoples in the APS and to address the gender pay gap.”
She said the party would work constructively with the APS and unions to re-build an effective Public Sector with fair and equitable conditions of employment and job security: “Where the Commonwealth acts as a model employer and restores the ability of workers to genuinely bargain.”
Senator Gallagher said current policies such as the no enhancements rule, the inflexible wage cap and pegging policies, denied APS workers their right to seek improvements for improved performance and outcomes.
She said that, if elected, Labor would work to reduce the fragmentation of APS pay and conditions and address over time the inequalities resulting from the industrial policies of the past eight years.
The Senator for Canberra said that to increase the number of direct permanent jobs in the APS, Labor would put an end to the reliance on contractors, consultants and labour-hire companies for work that could be done more effectively by Public Servants.
“(We) will abolish the arbitrary average staffing level (ASL) cap which has caused so much damage to specific Agencies across the APS,” she said.
“Labor will conduct an audit of employment within the APS and, as a model employer, take steps to create more secure employment where temporary forms of work are being used inappropriately,” Senator Gallagher said.
