
The Albanese government has begun to rebuild Australia’s shattered Public Service. The government’s fate depends significantly on it — but there’s much still to do.
For almost half a century, the balance of power and influence in government has shifted inexorably from the public service to ministerial advisers. The change has had profound implications for the way Australia is run.
As the influence and capability of the officials waned, more politically obedient source of work and policy analysis were found in external consultancies and a plethora of private labour providers. With the time the last Coalition government, almost any last shred of public service independence and boldness vanished. Ministers did not tolerate push-back against their edicts, however disastrous those edicts could be. Episodes like Robodebt were inevitable because senior public servants knew the penalties for speaking up.
In its final year in office, the Morrison government spent $20.8 billion on outsourcing public service functions to outside providers. In 2021-22, external labour accounted for 54,000 jobs; 27% of all the people performing government functions were actually employed by someone else. Defence alone accounted for two-thirds of the outsourcing by numbers and 77% by cost.
In its first two years, the Albanese government increased the size of its public service by 26,000. Defence was again the biggest winner, with a 2,900 boost to its civilian workforce. On a percentage basis, the Climate Change Authority was the big winner, with its staff increased by 431%.
But this does not, in itself, reveal how much the practicalities of behind-the-scenes government administration and policy development happens. And, in a time of AUKUS, bringing efficiency and budgetary responsibility in Defence up to an acceptable level, will not happen easily. Or perhaps at all.
Republished from The Policy Post – http://www.thepolicypost.net/2024/12/the-public-service-back-in-from-cold.html#