A heavyweight review of Australia's public service is aiming to bring it into the technological age, but Labor is worried frontline services will be slashed.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Friday announced former Telstra chief David Thodey has been hired to review the Australian public service and report back to the government in 2019.

"This review is an excellent opportunity to ensure the APS is fit-for-purpose in the years and decades ahead," Mr Turnbull said in a statement on Friday.

Mr Turnbull said many of the fundamentals of the public service dated back to a royal commission in the 1970s and it was time for a fresh look.

"Our APS must be apolitical, professional and efficient. It needs to drive policy and implementation, using technology and data to deliver for the Australian community," he said.

But Labor finance spokesman Jim Chalmers said the review should not be used as a smokescreen to slash frontline services or an excuse to delay reform.

"The Liberals have hollowed out the APS and imposed arbitrary caps, which have seen a blowout in spending and consultants and labour-hire, and poor morale among public servants," he said.

Mr Chalmers wants the review to address the use of contractors and consultants, the APS travel budget, senior bureaucrats' salaries and the amount of full-time and permanent staff within the public service.

Other members of the review panel include ANZ executive Maile Carnegie, University of Melbourne vice-chancellor Glyn Davis, former bureaucrat Gordon de Brouwer, University of Sydney chancellor Belinda Hutchinson and Coca-Cola Amatil executive Alison Watkins.

The public sector union says it is a business-dominated panel.

"It includes only one person who has worked in the Australian Public Service, while four of the six participants have backgrounds serving multinational corporations," CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood said.

She said a "clear-eyed and objective" review was needed, with bipartisan support and genuine engagement with public servants.

"We should not be sleep-walking into the Uber-isation of public services," she said.