More than 3000 labour hire contracts have been entered into by federal government agencies since the start of June, totalling nearly $800 million, tender documents show.

But Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher insists work has already started on curbing the public service's reliance on contractors, adding it will take longer than three months to "undo the damage" inflicted by the previous government.

Analysis by The Canberra Times shows labour hire contracts peaked in June and July with more than 1200 contracts entered into each month, costing $260 million and $386 million respectively.

Prior to the May election, March was the most expensive month with nearly $200 million being spent across 1019 contracts.

Veterans' Affairs, Health and Aged Care and Agriculture were among the departments spending the most on outsourced workers, ranking frequently in the top five for each month.

Services Australia, which has been in the spotlight over its reliance on contracted workers in recent years, was one of the lowest spenders this year.

Newly-formed departments, including the Employment and Work Relations and Climate Change departments, had monthly contractor bills reaching into the millions.

Ms Gallagher said she would be wasting no time to fulfil the election promise made months before polling day.

She promised the staffing ceiling - designed to limit workforce numbers and cut costs - would be scrapped, and an audit would be undertaken to understand the total reliance on labour hire staff.

"On coming into government, there was no central data on the use of labour hire, consultants and contractors across the APS," Ms Gallagher said.

"Before we can start rebuilding capability, we must understand the full extent of the external labour problem, including how we transition to new arrangements whilst maintaining service delivery.

"It is impossible to fix a decade of systematic dismantling of internal APS capability in the first three months of a Labor government, but we have started the work that will rebalance the APS from its current over reliance on external labour to greater internal capacity."

The main public sector union was supportive of the changes it had seen so far.

According to the Community and Public Sector Union, Services Australia had more than 1000 labour hire workers engaged at the agency in June this year.

But the number had dropped to just 68 by the end of August.

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The union's national secretary Melissa Donnelly said she expected it would take many more months before the changes were seen across other agencies, too.

"There is more to do to ensure that staff across the sector have secure jobs. It's well-understood that labour hire arrangements cost the government more and contribute to job insecurity, staff turnover and loss of expertise from these essential government services," Ms Donnelly told The Canberra Times.

"We expect agencies to be significantly reducing reliance on labour hire arrangements, and creating secure job opportunities as quickly as possible.

"We need a secure jobs audit across the whole of the APS to ensure that staff have security and the community has the services it needs. We look forward to continuing to work on that with the Albanese government."

Spokespeople for the Health and Education departments said they had not received a ministerial direction to limit their reliance on labour hire or contract workers.

The Social Services Department had a workforce made up of 87 per cent APS officers, a spokesperson confirmed.

But Services Australia acknowledged its higher reliance on a contracted workforce over the past two years but added it was "bringing staff back in house" this financial year.

Former finance ministers Simon Birmingham and Mathias Cormann have previously defended the Coalition's push toward labour hire arrangements, saying they were an effective and efficient measure for fluctuating operational pressures on agencies.

Mr Cormann had also behind sweeping efficiency reforms for the public service, which capped staffing levels each year and required agencies to find areas that could be cut in order to repair the government's bottom line.

While in opposition, Minister Gallagher was supportive of undoing the Coalition's work, signalling she would look to David Thodey's landmark 2019 review into the public service.

The report offered 40 recommendations to reform the public service's aging approach, including a push to remove the staffing level cap, to make pay scales and conditions more consistent and a move away from labour hire reliance.