Who knows? There may even be a belated recognition by the Coalition there is a correlation between the number of people departments employ and the quality of service delivery.

Under questioning from Senator Katy Gallagher, a former ACT chief minister with an excellent handle on how important a strong APS is to Canberra's economy, Cormann opened the door to the possibility of change.

"At some point there will be growth in the size of the sector... as high as necessary but as low as possible," he said.

Senator Cormann defended the decision to cap APS staffing at 2006 levels, essentially saying it was Labor's fault.

The Coalition had had no choice given the "rapidly deteriorating budget position" it encountered on winning the 2013 election.

Senator Cormann's comments, which include a commitment to "absolutely" consider requests for additional staffing "provided the opportunity for reprioritisation of existing resources has been exhausted", came as an intriguing counterpoint to Australian Public Service commissioner Peter Woolcott's assertion the cap was not holding the service back.

Mr Woolcott also defended the increasing use of external consultants and contractors to plug the gaps.

"We are enormously challenged and we need to use consultants and contractors but, at the same time, we need to work very seriously on our own capacity," he said.

It is to be hoped Mr Woolcott would be across the views of APS workers and the Community and Public Sector Union.

The CPSU, responding to Scott Morrison's speech on APS reform last month, was highly critical of the cuts that had occurred to date.

It blamed the elimination of more than 5000 jobs within the Department of Human Services since the freeze was put in place for the major blowout in "missed calls, [extended] wait times, and queues".

"Scott Morrison said Services Australia will be a model for the whole APS... we've seen Services Australia pay around $900,000 to consultants for six weeks work. That is exactly the wrong model," the CPSU said.

It's very hard to disagree. Blowing millions of taxpayer dollars on band-aids to fix day-to-day and operational issues does nothing to deliver the increased in house capability both Mr Woolcott and Senator Cormann. The latter admittedly in a roundabout way, are saying should be the priority.

Senator Cormann's comment also needs to be considered against the backdrop of the hardline, and sometimes heavy handed, approach the Coalition has adopted towards the APS for much of the last decade.

Less than a week out from the 2019 election Senator Cormann and Josh Frydenberg announced $1.5 billion in cuts to public service spending to fund new roads and tax cuts. It was estimated at the time that this could result in the loss of up to 3000 jobs, including in Medicare and Centrelink offices.

This was followed by calls, in August, by the Prime Minister for the APS to introduce "congestion busting" measures and to work on its "trust deficit" with the public.

Seen in this light, Senator Cormann's latest comments are quite positively nuanced and mark a welcome change of tone.

That said, the proof of the pudding is in the eating. Senator Cormann has only opened a door. He has not committed himself, or the government, to anything specific.