The 2024 budget shows the government has had some success in returning “core work” to the Australian Public Service (APS).
Figures in budget paper no. 4 show 8,816 new public service positions have been created since the 2023 budget, including 5,816 roles that have been explicitly converted from contracted positions, and 3,000 frontline positions at Services Australia.
This has driven down spend on the Big Four consultants by $624 million for 2023-24 compared to the same period in 2021-22, at $84 million less each month.
Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher said an appropriately resourced public service is essential to Australia’s future.
“You cannot deliver outcomes for Australians without the foundations of a strong public service. After almost a decade of outsourcing, reduced service outcomes and underinvestment, the Government has invested in the public service to ensure it is best placed to do the job the Australian people expect,” she said.
“Instead of paying a premium for outsourced capability, in many cases for work public servants are capable of doing, the Government is ensuring that the public service is equipped to deliver essential frontline services, protect Australians and secure our region.”
Because of the long-standing ASL cap, public service departments were unable to fund new permanent positions. This led to a declining ratio of public servants to the general public over the last decade, and many departments were starved of the funding they needed for day-to-day operations.
This left many agencies with little choice but to outsource their work to get it done. A litany of scandals around the Big Four consulting firms has served as a reminder of how outsourcing work can undermine the purpose of government.
While the intent of this policy was to slow growth in spending, the need to hire external contractors and consultants left some agencies spending more money than they would have otherwise.
One of the flagship policies supporting this has been the development of Australian Government Consulting (AGC) — a play to replace the Big Four with the government’s own in-house service.
ACG received $10.9 million in last year’s budget, to get the ball rolling. It does not have a line item in the 2024 budget, making the future of the program unclear.
The Department of Defence appears to have taken notice of AGC and will pilot its own in-house consulting network, called Australian Defence Consulting.
As the population and responsibilities of government continue to grow, the need for resourcing will, too. The total number of federal mandarins will grow to 209,000 in the next financial year, with new staff being put on for central parts of the government’s agenda.
Members of the alternative government have continued to criticise growth in the public service headcount, and quality of work but have yet to offer an alternative for service delivery.
The government announced plans ahead of time that some of the additional staff would be funded by “internal efficiencies” found within agencies.
They expect returning frontline services to the public service will continue to save rather than cost the government money.
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