Labor's first budget since regaining power signals a major expansion of the public service, showing staffing levels growing by 8000 and ranks of agencies increasing across the bureaucracy.
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The government is also ripping $3.6 billion from public service spending on external labour, advertising, travel and legal expenses, flagging most of the cuts will arrive in 2025-26.
It follows Labor promises to restore funding and staffing in the public service after years of cuts under the Coalition, and to reduce the bureaucracy's reliance on contractors and consultants.
Budget papers reveal staffing increases across Treasury, Home Affairs, Health, and Defence portfolios, as the government moves to grow internal employee numbers.
The government is also funding a major boost to employee numbers at the Australia Taxation Office, which will grow staffing by about 1,200 in the next fiscal year.
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Services Australia is expected to shrink as it sheds staff acquired in response to COVID, but the Albanese government is promising it will restore the agency's staffing after years of cuts under the Coalition and previous Labor governments.
Public service staffing, which grew in the later years of the Coalition government in response to the pandemic, will jump significantly in Labor's first year back in power.
The average staffing level will grow from 173,100 to 181,100 in the next fiscal year, reaching the highest number since 2011-12.
Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher said Labor wanted to bolster the public service's role as an adviser to the government.
It also wanted the public service to work in more cooperative and consultative ways, and embody "integrity in everything it does".
Among agencies set for restored staffing levels are Services Australia, Veterans' Affairs and the National Disability Insurance Agency, Senator Gallagher said.
"Face-to-face services across Australia, including in regional Australia, will be boosted to provide increased accessible and direct support to the public and deliver an improve customer experience," she said.
Senator Gallagher also flagged work was under way to "modernise" the public service's ways of working, including its approach to flexible work, and where it employed staff in Australia, to attract staff.
"These strategies will assist in reducing the APS' reliance on consultants and contractors," she said.
The government will fund a $73 million plan to strengthen the capability of the public service with savings from inside the APS.
It will also spend $45 million for the Prime Minister's Department to support its policy agenda, redirecting funding of $16 million over seven years from a Coalition project to create regional public service hubs.
Budget papers show the government will pour money into multiple portfolios as it moves on its agenda.
The government will spend $276 million over four years to establish a "strong" Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water to deliver Labor's climate change agenda.
It will provide the Attorney-General's portfolio more funding over four years to support the Australian Human Rights Commission.
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Doug Dingwall
Doug Dingwall is The Canberra Times' parliamentary bureau chief. He writes about government and federal politics, and has an interest in integrity, industrial relations and foreign affairs. Previously he worked at The Examiner in Launceston, where he won a Tasmanian Human Rights Award for his reporting. Contact him on doug.dingwall@canberratimes.com.au
Doug Dingwall is The Canberra Times' parliamentary bureau chief. He writes about government and federal politics, and has an interest in integrity, industrial relations and foreign affairs. Previously he worked at The Examiner in Launceston, where he won a Tasmanian Human Rights Award for his reporting. Contact him on doug.dingwall@canberratimes.com.au
