There's never been a more exciting time to be a public servant – if, that is, you happen to work in intelligence or national security.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
As for the rest of the bureaucracy – and, by extension, Canberra – the good news is that there isn't much bad news.
This year's budget unmistakeably heralds a trip to the ballot box. It has all the markers of election budgets, such as a sudden spike in infrastructure spending, income-tax cuts (albeit small) that will reach most workers, and a noticeable change in rhetoric. The Coalition is no longer talking about "budget repair", "Labor's waste" and the need to live within our means. Instead, the Treasurer's speech was all about rewards and the "strong economy".
Indeed, the phrase "efficiency dividend", for example, appears only once in the budget papers – and that is to explain that the ABC will continue to be exempt from paying it.
There isn't, of course, a platter of infrastructure projects to placate ACT voters; federal elections don't hinge on what Canberrans think.
But a rash of new policy proposals in the Commonwealth tends to coincide with good times for the capital's economy, even if those proposals are designed to benefit others. Most of us are not bureaucrats, but the Australian Public Service remains the lifeblood of our city; when it's active, so is Canberra.
After four years of tight restraint, the APS staffing cap remains, but will seem a little looser than it has been. The government's civilian workforce is expected to grow in the coming year, gaining just over 900 full-time-equivalent staff.
Most of those extra jobs will be in the rapidly expanding Department of Home Affairs or in other workplaces with national-security, law-enforcement or policing roles. However, the Department of Industry, Innovation and Science will be an unexpected beneficiary, as it rolls out several new research programs.
The departments of Human Services and Social Services, meanwhile, will shed staff.
There are some hints of budget trickery.
Almost every government department and agency has lost funding for capital works, maintenance and equipment, particularly in the years beyond 2018-19, and almost entirely without explanation.
This smacks of an attempt to hide real, inescapable costs in order to make the deficit appear smaller, or the future surplus seem larger.
The need to maintain workplaces or buy essential equipment doesn't simply disappear. But making the expenses invisible – at least until, say, next year – might be handy for a government facing re-election.
It's yet another reason to disregard any talk of a surplus, or any other delayed promise, scheduled to happen in a budget's outlying years.
