The public service plans to redeploy 500 volunteers to Services Australia as it activates its surge reserve in response to growing demand on the welfare agency.
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Public Service Minister Ben Morton said a call-out for public servants to put their hands up and help the agency had received a strong response, and the government was seeking more volunteers.
Services Australia has asked for backup from the public service's surge reserve for up to eight weeks from January 24, as COVID case numbers grow and increasing demand for welfare payments puts pressure on the agency.
Mr Morton said meeting the request for support was a priority of the government.
"We have an expectation that secretaries, chief operating officers and agency heads comb through their department and seek nominations from people who are able to assist in this search," Mr Morton said.
He spoke to a meeting of the public service's chief operating officers on Monday, telling them the reputation of the public service had been enhanced because of its work in 2020 and 2021.
Mr Morton told them the public service had an opportunity to maintain that enhanced reputation through its response to the latest surge in COVID cases.
"There are elements of the public service that have capacity to support and should use that capacity for those elements that are in need," he told The Canberra Times.
Among public servants who would be redeployed to help Services Australia were staff of the Museum of Australian Democracy, which is currently closed following a damaging fire last month.
Mr Morton said the public service had already received commitments of about 500 staff volunteering for a redeployment. About 200 of these nominations had been confirmed.
"I've been assured today that we're on track to meet that request from Services Australia," he said.
"But I do encourage, and I ask, members of the public service to consider nominating themselves within their organisation for the surge reserve, and to do something that isn't your ordinary responsibility to help Australians."
Mr Morton said he would much prefer to redeploy public servants from within the Australian Public Service to areas of need than rely on labour-hire firms and contractors.
"But we will have to rely on labour-hire firms and contractors more so if we fail to meet the requirements of redeployment within the public service," he said.
Surge reserve volunteers helping Services Australia were increasingly able to receive training and to work from home while on redeployment, Mr Morton said.
"If people are reluctant to nominate because they feel that their work will need to be in a call centre, Services Australia has worked hard to increase their ability for people to do this work from home as well, and I think that fact may encourage further nominations."
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The public service's surge reserve emerged early in the pandemic as one of its main, permanent innovations in response to the COVID crisis.
Recent figures from the Australian Public Service Commission show the bureaucracy's surge reserve, which supports agencies in critical and urgent need of additional staff, has nearly 2100 members.
Services Australia has relied on volunteers to help it deal with surges in demand during critical phases of the pandemic in Australia throughout 2020 and 2021.
While every portfolio contributes to the reserve, the Attorney-General's, Social Services, and Treasury portfolios have recorded the most volunteers. The public service commission has previously forecast the reserve will eventually reach 4000 members.
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