More than 10,000 staff are expected to join the Australian Public Service over the next financial year, following the 2023-24 Budget focused on reducing reliance on contractors, consultants and external labour hire.
In the Budget papers, Agency Resourcing, Budget Paper NO. 4, Minister for Finance, Senator Katy Gallagher revealed an overall jump in the estimated total average staffing levels (ASL) of 10,739 – a six per cent increase.
“In this Budget, the Government has continued to reduce reliance on contractors, consultants and external labour hire (collectively known as external labour),” Senator Gallagher said.
“The Government has converted more than 3,000 roles undertaken by external labour to ASL,” she said.
“This represents an important rebalancing of the APS workforce to reduce the reliance on external labour where work can appropriately be done by APS staff.”
The Department with the biggest number of ASL conversions was Defence (1,029), followed by Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (611), Health and Aged Care (394) and Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (280).
Defence is expected to see the greatest ASL gains with an additional 2,610 public servants (or 2.5 per cent), almost half of which can be attributed to external labour conversions, closely followed by Treasury with 2,525 (or 8.5 per cent).
The Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water portfolio is to gain another 1,951, an increase of 25.1 per cent.
Other Departments expected to grow solidly are Employment and Workplace Relations (up 687 or 11.7 per cent), Finance (up 417 or 11.6 per cent) and Prime Minister and Cabinet (up 604 or 11.6 per cent).
The Attorney-General’s Department is expected to grow by 1,082 (seven per cent), Education by 147 (7.9 per cent), Industry, Science and Resources by 657 (5.4 per cent), and Parliamentary Services by 33 (2.4 per cent)
In contrast to the overall growth, Social Services and Foreign Affairs and Trade are expected to see a drop in staff levels of 729 (a two per cent loss) and 110 (a 1.4 per cent loss) respectively.
