Federal Government's push to move shrinking public service to the bush isn't working

Updated

The federal bureaucracy has continued to shed jobs and is now at its smallest size in 13 years, after losing more than 3,000 staff over 12 months.

Key points: The downwards trend coincides with increased spending on consultants and businesses

The push to decentralise the public service is struggling: the proportion of staff who work in big cities hasn't changed in seven years

The biggest winners of the small amount of decentralisation are Geelong, South Brisbane and the Central Coast

New workforce data also shows the Government's push to move public servants' jobs to bush towns appears to be foundering.

The Australian Public Service (APS) has been shrinking since 2012 — a trend that has coincided with increased government spending on consultants and labour-hire firms.

The latest snapshot of the public service shows it employed 147,237 staff on June 30 — 2.1 per cent less than a year earlier.

Most of the job losses were in the Tax Office and Services Australia, which includes Medicare and Centrelink offices.

The Government explained the reductions in a report, saying "fluctuations in the overall [staff] headcount occur for many reasons, including seasonal patterns, business and government requirements, and demand".

Shrinking service

The decline of the APS workforce divided political parties during this year's election campaign. A parliamentary committee had also been examining the growing use of businesses to do government work, but its inquiry was abandoned when the election was called.

Labor pledged to end staffing cuts and reduce spending on contractors and consultants, saying the loss of government jobs was a "false economy" because buying the skills from elsewhere cost more.

Australian National University academic Leo Dobes also warned the reliance on consultants had left the APS with too few skilled economists and "a woeful lack of ability and knowledge in that area".

Consultancy gains

However, the Coalition argues that using outside expertise makes the Government more flexible and efficient.

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann told public servants last year that contractors and consultants could "keep the overall cost of government administration low, when the business needs to access relevant skills and expertise, or a surge in demand for certain public services is temporary".

The federal budget papers also point out that per capita spending on administration (whether on public servants or businesses) is falling, which Senator Cormann says is good — it should be "as much as necessary but also should be as little as possible".

A former deputy head of the Finance Department, Pegasus Economics director Stephen Bartos, says the private sector can be more cost-effective — if used sparingly.

"Unfortunately, what we have seen, in … some departments, is over-reliance on consultants, when there is ongoing work that would be more cheaply and effectively done by public servants," Mr Bartos said.

Lure of cities too strong?

Former Nationals leader Barnaby Joyce managed to move an agriculture regulator — the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority — from Canberra to his regional New South Wales electorate, provoking an uproar and staff resignations in the process.

But the Government's policy of shifting the APS workforce out of the nation's big cities appears to have failed so far.

Since the policy was announced in 2017, the proportion of public servants who work in Australia's six largest cities (Canberra and larger) has remained exactly 82 per cent — a ratio that hasn't budged in seven years.

Biggest winners

AREA JOBS GAINED Central Coast (NSW) 338 South Brisbane 171 Geelong (Vic) 108 New England & North-West NSW 102 North-West Melbourne 101 Logan-Beaudesert (Qld) 88 Bendigo (Vic) 79 Gold Coast 64 Outer-East Melbourne 62 South-East Perth 57

Nonetheless, some regions have gained jobs while others lost staff.

The biggest winners are Geelong, South Brisbane and the Central Coast (NSW). The biggest losers are the ACT, Central and Inner-South Sydney, and Inner Melbourne.

Biggest losers

AREA JOBS LOST Canberra -2,492 Central & Inner-South Sydney -996 Inner Melbourne -425 Inner-City Brisbane -357 Newcastle-Lake Macquarie -215 Parramatta (NSW) -197 Darwin -161 Townsville (Qld) -148 Murray (NSW) -146 Capital region (NSW) -141

Mr Bartos said moving government agencies made no sense unless there was evidence it would help the organisation.

"If public servants want to resist a decentralisation imposed from above, they can find dozens of ways not to comply or do it so slowly that, by the time you get around to looking at it, the whole structure of the agency has changed anyway."

The Government is expected to table a detailed report on the APS in Parliament this week.

Topics: public-sector, government-and-politics, work, community-and-society, canberra-2600, armidale-2350, act

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