The Parliament House's 2018 and 2019 workplace surveys, released last month after being "buried" from public release for years, reveal a troubled workplace with low staff morale and a lack of confidence in its leadership.

The results came amid a string of controversies involving the parliamentary department, including an infamous incident where a senior security official tasted a suspicious white powder breaking protocol along with the alleged rape of Brittany Higgins within a minister's office.

Just 39 per cent of 2019 census respondents believed the senior executive team were "high quality" - 18 per cent lower than the overall APS response - while only 53 per cent of staff believed it would be hard to get away with corruption in the workplace - a figure well below the overall APS mark of 71 per cent.

The results, which include more granular, branch-level results, also mark the Department of Parliamentary Services' final years participating in the standardised APS Census before it ditched the model for its own survey, which a spokesperson claimed was more tailored to its workplace.

The main public sector union said it validated long-held concerns it had become a toxic workplace, with a greater need for transparency, reflecting what workers within the halls of power had warned them over the years.

The census outcomes have been the subject of a long-running freedom of information dispute between a former employee, the Australian Public Service Commission, Office of the Australian Information Commissioner and the department's bosses after a decision was made not to publicly release them.

The surveys, which were undertaken by around 60 per cent of the nearly 1000 staff members at Capital Hill across 2018 and 2019, show only 45 per cent of employees feel inspired to do their best work every day while around half felt their bosses cared about their health and wellbeing.

Half responded positively when asked whether they looked forward to the next 12 months "with enthusiasm".

The department's secretary Rob Stefanic fought against the survey results' release, saying it could result in having a "substantial adverse effect" on operations if released, documents previously sighted by The Canberra Times showed.

Mr Stefanic had added his agency would not participate in any future censuses if the findings were published. It was a warning his agency followed through after the 2019 census had been completed.

The former employee believes the department's poor results are behind the reason they were hidden for so many years.

"DPS said that census results would be released just like in every other year, but when the results came back, they were obviously so bad that they decided to bury them," they said.

READ MORE:

A spokesperson instead claims they were not published as "consistent with other APS agencies that publish high-level results".

Following 2019, the department created its own survey, replacing the standardised 200-question census for an internal 40-question version.

"The survey did not suit the DPS workforce, many of whom are not based at desks all day," the spokesperson said.

"A decision was taken after the 2019 census that DPS would conduct its own survey, one that focused more on the department's structure and unique operating environment."

The Community and Public Sector Union criticised the department's workplace culture, releasing its own small sample size survey in late 2020 to a senate inquiry, revealing high levels of workplace bullying.

Mr Stefanic later hit back at the union, saying it was providing false evidence to senators and relying on the accounts of disgruntled employees who played victims.

But national secretary Melissa Donnelly said now was time for the parliamentary department to resolve the culture issues and work toward greater transparency.

"There is an opportunity right now to make real improvements to that culture, including through the implementation of recommendations that were laid out in the Set the Standard report by Sex Discrimination Commissioner, Kate Jenkins," she said.

"The CPSU welcomes the government's view that all agency's census results should be publicly available.

"Greater transparency and accountability is essential to driving cultural change."

The parliamentary department, which is not a public service body, is exempt from freedom of information laws, meaning it has no obligation to release requested documents.

But the former employee sought to reveal them through a freedom of information request in late 2018 to the public service commission, who administers the yearly standardised survey and held the census results.

The public service commission pushed back on the request, claiming over the years their release would have a "detrimental impact" on convincing non-APS agencies to take the annual census.

"Disclosing the report through the FOI process is likely to both impact on participation rates, full and frank discussion between employees and managers in agencies, and the resulting commerciality and utility of the results of the Census," the commission argued in its fight against releasing the parliamentary department's results.

The dispute eventually culminated in a win for the applicant and the documents' release in November 2022, after the information commissioner dismissed the APSC's claims.

The former employee said he was disappointed by the APSC's arguments against the results' release.

"I was a bit stunned the APSC argued that poor results about senior managers in the census were not relevant to their performance," they said.

"I thought it was the APSC's job to deal with underperformance."

We've made it a whole lot easier for you to have your say. Our new comment platform requires only one log-in to access articles and to join the discussion on The Canberra Times website. Find out how to register so you can enjoy civil, friendly and engaging discussions. See our moderation policy here.