Australian Public Service

And we are, you know, universalizing lived experience across the enterprise.

The enterprise consists of both ADF and APS, which is Australian Public Service and Australian Defence Force.

So we're really trying to create a community of practice when it comes to lived experience and particularly with the implementation of the recommendations as well um which you know as with any lived experience program of works it has its challenges um you know there's some benefits but there's also again there's a lot of resourcing required so yeah

it is very beneficial i think having people that have done the job and experienced things to be able to go back to younger younger soldiers and sailors and airmen and and say this is what i did this is how i felt about it this is where i sort of got to

And this one from Zach Braxton Smith titled Claims Audit Problems Fixed Fall Short.

A comment buried deep in the Independent Auditor's 2025-26 annual report has pointed to a big issue for the Australian Public Service.

Self-reported implementation results can differ from the results of Australian National Audit Office audits is one way of saying that agencies have covered up weak action on audit findings.

The Audit Office found that of recommendations that agencies reported as action to date, 25% were partially implemented or not implemented at all.

So now to page 14, the public eye page, Merit Pools, Hiring under the Microscope by Dana Daniel.

Hiring in the Australian Public Service has emerged as a point of contention in APS-wide bargaining as the main public sector union pushes for changes to ensure fair and merit-based recruitment in negotiations for a new enterprise agreement with the Albanese government.

A perceived lack of transparency around how merit lists and pools are drawn from and external processes being conducted despite active merit pools already existing are top concerns for community and public sector union members.

The public eye can reveal the CPSU is seeking the changes to how federal bureaucrats are hired and enabled to climb up the ranks.

What has been presented in APS bargaining does not provide the strong, enforceable protection workers need or safeguards around AI that CPS members expect, she said, calling for strong protections to ensure AI is not used in surveillance, performance assessment or recruitment and promotions.

Finance and Public Sector Minister Katie Gallagher said, I encourage the union to continue negotiating.

Australian Public Service Commission Chief Negotiator Alison Stott, who is leading the Commonwealth's negotiations, will next meet with unions on October 6.

Home Affairs Secretary Stephanie Foster said, has explained why she and fellow agency heads are pushing to ban video footage from parliamentary hearings being edited and shared on social media, a move that's been slammed as an affront to democracy.

Home Affairs has taken a hit to staff sentiment as the department slashed hundreds of jobs amid budget pressures, the agency's 2026 APS employee census shows.

After last year shaking off its title of the worst-ranked place to work in the Australian Public Service, the agency's latest census results, provided exclusively to the Canberra Times, show some ground has been lost.

But Secretary Stephanie Foster is looking ahead.

Of the 12,385 employees who took part in the survey between May 4 and June 5, 2026, just 65% of respondents said they would recommend Home Affairs as a good place to work.

It's on page 12, Morale plummets in redundancy push.

The political narrative suggests the federal government is endlessly expanding the bureaucracy.

However, the reality within the Australian public service is different.

Far from piling on excess staff, Substantial voluntary redundancy programs are rolling through major departments.

The Department also revealed that just under half, 47%, of staff who accepted redundancies were Executive Level 1 and Executive Level 2.

In addition, 80 Australian Public Service 6 staff and 61 APS 5 staff were granted voluntary redundancies.

The 2026 APS Census results were presented to all staff members in the department.

The insider said, although staff still felt a strong connection to the department's work and mission, confidence in the executive leadership had eroded, with survey data suggesting that senior leaders were not seen as working together and change was neither managed nor communicated well.

And guess which side has been getting bigger? Since Labor came to power, the federal government has added an average of 28 new public servants every single day.

In June 2021, the Australian Public Service had around 159,000 employees.

By the end of 2025, almost 196,000.

That's roughly 36,700 extra public servants, an increase of around 23%, and 92 out of 103 government agencies got bigger.

So I persevered and went into a policy role with the Attorney-General's Department here in Canberra.

That's part of the Commonwealth Public Service, and I did that for a little while.

But I had a revelation one day.

I'd been working with the Australian Government Solicitor on some copyright law issues, and I'd been requesting advice, and they'd been providing the advice to me, and I suddenly thought, "I think I actually want to be providing this advice and not asking for it." So [laughs] I decided to, um, send off a CV, and one thing led to another, and I had an interview and got into the dispute resolution or litigation area of the Australian Government Solicitor, and that's where I stayed for about seventeen or so years.

And one is the complex relationship between intelligence and policy, as you mentioned.

My very first day in the Commonwealth Public Service when I was starting to work at ONA, My new boss sat me down and said, well, welcome to the intelligence world.

Now, we do intelligence assessment, not policy.

You understand the distinction, don't you? And I looked at him slightly blankly.