The ACT government will review the use of temporary and casual employment in an effort to find more permanent jobs for staff in the territory's public service, as the size of its workforce is set to increase by more than three per cent.
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The budget will allocate $471,000 in 2019-20 for a review of casual work to identify jobs that can be made into permanent positions.
The ACT Public Sector Standards Commissioner will also get a funding boost, receiving $287,000 in 2019-20 and $295,000 in 2020-21 to improve response times to complaints.
Growth in the ACT bureaucracy will be driven by a large staff increase at the education directorate, along with smaller increases for the Suburban Land Agency and the Canberra Institute of Technology among other agencies.
The education directorate will see an increase of 390 full-time equivalent employees, including more teachers as school enrolment numbers grow.
The increase in education directorate staff numbers is partly due to the government directly employing government school cleaners.
Budget papers show the ACT public service will grow to 22,102 full time equivalent positions in the next fiscal year - up from an estimated 21,388 full-time equivalent positions this year.
It comes after the Coalition announced the efficiency dividend for the federal public service would continue, seeing $1.5 billion cut from the bureaucracy over the next four years.
The ACT government will spend $24 million over the next four years on fit-out and IT infrastructure for new government offices under construction at Constitution Place in the city and at Dickson.
The new offices will be home to 2700 public servants, with the ACT government previously committing to leasing the city site for 25 years.
The funding will also deliver increased automation to the new offices, with streamlined digital record keeping systems and "activity-based work".
Activity-based work, outlined by the service's strategic board in 2017, includes open-plan offices, hot-desking and the ability for public servants to work remotely.
A new, integrated human resources management system will also be rolled out for the ACT government, with future savings expected with increased automation. The system will cost $13 million in 2019-20 and $33 million over four years, with the government expected to spend a further $22 million on associated costs in that period.
Chief Minister Andrew Barr said the territory was in a strong position as the ACT economy diversified. More than 60 per cent of the workforce was employed outside the territory or federal public service, he said.
Meanwhile, the ACT government expects its defined benefit superannuation liability will peak at $9.6 billion in 2032, up from the previous forecast that it would peak at $8.5 billion in 2022. The ACT government's liability covers more than 35,000 current and former public servants.
Despite a strong annual investment return of 7.7 per cent on the government's superannuation provision account, there is still more than $3.6 million of unfunded liability for defined benefit scheme superannuation payments.
Payments for the schemes, which have been closed to new public service employees for more than a decade, are expected to continue for more than 50 years, peaking at about $670 million in 2043.
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined The Canberra Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, transport, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
