Public Eye | How the federal budget affects your APS agency, Department of Agriculture lifeline, and Defence's submarine budget

The Albanese government has committed to the next step of its mission to cut down spending on contractors, promising a boost of more than 10,000 APS roles, 3314 of which will be converted from temporary labour hire positions.

So let's get down to the nitty gritty of which agencies came out on top in the 2023 federal budget, and which ones will be tightening the belt a bit.

The Australian Taxation Office is getting a huge boost to the average number of staff it's allowed to hire, with a top-up of 2372 APS staff.

Meanwhile, agencies in the Attorney-General's Department portfolio did pretty well for themselves.

The National Anti-Corruption Commission can be staffed by up to 239 public servants, 122 of whom were previously allocated to the Australian Commission for Law Enforcement Integrity, which is merging with the NACC. And the Administrative Appeals Tribunal is getting 178 more places.

The Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water is sitting pretty, too, with an additional 1481 bureaucrats green-lit for the next financial year. A $318.8 million package will fund a range of measures under the portfolio next year, such as kick-starting Australia's hydrogen industry.

And it's a good thing the cost of electronics are coming down, because the Australian Bureau of Statistics has a big shopping list to replace old computers and upgrade its data storage and communication systems. The agency for counting things has been allocated almost $173 million in the budget over the next four years to fund the second stage of a program to improve its ability to collect, store, analyse and communicate critical information about the country and the economy.

Given all of the submarine hoo-ha in recent months, it should come as no surprise the Department of Defence did well on Tuesday. Just on a staffing level, it's expected to grow by more than 2500 staff across the portfolio in the coming year.

In an attempt to resolve its attraction and retention issues, Defence is offering a $50,000 continuation bonus to serving members for their service at a cost of $395 million over the next two years.

Defence will also be given $4.2 billion over the decade to establish and run the new Australian Submarine Agency. It has the tiny, not-so-big-deal task of delivering that ambitious nuclear-submarine program.

The Australian Public Service Commission also scored a modest win for diversity, receiving $3.4 million over the next two years to boost First Nations employment. Currently about 3.6 per cent of APS employees are First Nations, and the government has committed to reach 5 per cent representation by 2030.

Contractors aren't getting too much love at this time of year. An Audit of Employment released before the budget found temporary labour hire cost the government $20.8 billion in 2021-22. So they're kind of keen to cut that down.

It doesn't mean it will be an easy transition. Committing to hiring more public servants alone won't solve the APS' attraction and retention issues.

Services Australia is also losing more than 1800 roles. Government Services Minister Bill Shorten says this is just a return to pre-pandemic levels and the agency will now have a cohort of 850 staff who can be mobilised in emergencies. But the Community and Public Sector Union says the staffing levels are "heading in the wrong direction".

READ MORE:

The new agency tasked with enforcing environmental laws, Environment Protection Australia, is another loser, independent MP Andrew Wilkie reckons. The agency received $121 million over four years, one-third of the funding the Parliamentary Budget Office estimated when asked by Mr Wilkie last month. Those estimates for a mixed funding model, over the same period of time, produced a $322.2 million figure.

While the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade got a nice tidy boost of $376.9 million over four years, we understand the bulk of it is going to paying off those expensive overseas property leases. Turns out, it costs quite a bit to keep those posts up and running.

The Australian Trade and Investment Commission is also taking a hit. Its allocated roles will drop by 122. The commission is also losing $61 million between 2025 and 2027, originally allocated for a grants program, which will now go to DFAT.

The budget papers also revealed a $10.9 million sum will go towards start-up funding for its in-house consulting service over the next two years.

Details of the model are still scant, but the idea is it will be a panel of contractors within the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet, which can "deliver high-quality strategic consulting services to the APS".

Known as 'The People Panel', the in-house consultancy would create a single point for agencies to access labour hire services and cut down expensive reliance on private firms.

"The in-house consulting capability will strengthen internal capabilities and bring critical work back into the APS," the budget papers state.

What will the hybrid APS-consultant of the future look like, we wonder?

The Department of Agriculture received a $127 funding supplementation in the 2022-23 financial year, after the agency started slashing contractors, travel and training.

The budget papers state the funding shortfall was caused by cost-recovered activities and increased biosecurity operations, including front-line border operations and import clearances.

A department official told a joint parliamentary committee in April the costs and fees for services have not been adjusted in line with what it costs to deliver them, contributing to funding problems. Biosecurity threats and trade disruptions have also been pricey for the department.

The Australian Communications and Media Authority will receive $7.9 million over the four years from 2023-2024 to tackle online misinformation and disinformation.

The money will go towards reducing the spread of harmful content on global digital platforms, and will be redirected from unallocated money from the 2021-22 budget, for regional Australia, and the 2020-21 budget, for bushfire recovery.