The massive expansion of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet is continuing, with the number of staff employed by the central agency passing the 1000 mark.
The department's annual report, which was tabled in Parliament yesterday, revealed that it had 1090 full-time, part-time and non-ongoing staff at the end of June.
In 2002-03, the Prime Minister's department had 347 staff which rose to 655 by 2009-10.
The explosion in employee numbers has led to former meeting rooms at the department's Barton headquarters being converted into work spaces.
The transfer of the Office of Arts, which includes 57 National Portrait Gallery staff, into the department, is responsible for 259 of the extra positions.
Last financial year, the department had 58 staff working on the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, to be held in Perth later this month.
The department's report said it offered competitive salaries and flexible working conditions in order to ''ensure that we have the ability to attract and retain high-calibre candidates in a very competitive environment''.
Last year the department had 27 staff with average annual salary packages worth $167,4999 and 28 earning about $190,000.
A further 24 staff earned between $210,000 and $460,000.
Performance bonuses averaging $5560 were paid to 123 Executive Level 1 staff. Bonuses averaging $7456 were paid to 103 Executive Level 2 staff. No bonuses were paid to senior executives.
The Government also tabled yesterday the annual report of NBN Co, the body responsible for the construction of the National Broadband Network.
The government-owned company generated an operating loss of $323 million last financial year and had no operational revenues. It spent $161 million on legal technical advice-related expenses, $119 million on salaries and other employee-related expenses and $37 million on IT and facilities expenses.
Chief executive Mike Quigley's remuneration package exceeded $1.9 million, up from $1.8 million the previous year.
The Government plans to invest more than $27 billion in the network that the company is expected to repay plus a return on the investment.
The Government contributed $1050 million in equity to the company in 2010-11. The network will be connected to 93 per cent of Australia homes, schools and business with fibre-to-the-premises technology that will provide broadband speeds of up to 100 megabits a second.
The network has already been rolled out to more than 18,000 premises with 3000 homes in Gungahlin to be connected by the end of next year.
NBN Co said it intended to sign contracts next year for satellites and ground segment equipment. ''The total capital expenditure incurred over the past 12 months was $463 million,'' the report said. This included $85 million on rolling out the fibre network, $118million on acquiring 2.3GHz and 3.4GHz wireless spectrum licences and $198 million on systems and processes.
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