The country's most senior public servant has defended the size of the federal public service in a bold end-of-year speech made on the brink of an election campaign in which the Coalition will attack a 36,000-place increase under Labor.
In an address titled "Who Needs a Public Service?", Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Glyn Davis alluded to a brewing debate about the size of the bureaucracy and reassured public servants that their work "is honourable and necessary".
"There are always competing narratives about the best way to organise the state, even if the debate sometimes relies more on belief than evidence," Professor Davis said in his Institute of Public Administration Australia address in Canberra on Wednesday evening.
"Just as good policy advice is based on facts and analysis, so the value of public service should be evaluated on its merits."
Professor Davis did not directly mention any political commentary about the public service, but referenced debates about the bureaucracy in recent elections abroad.
He acknowledged a need to listen to criticisms of the public service and its work, but stressed the role of a capable public service to deliver strong policy and services.
"As budget paper four from this year makes clear, the average staffing levels of the Australian Public Service are still now in 2024 below those of the final year of the Howard government as a percentage of the labour force," he said.
"So the APS has grown more slowly than the Australian population."
Labor has funded about 36,000 additional Average Staffing Level places in its three budgets to date.
This figure is more than it initially expected, as it began to crack down on outsourced labour and expertise and bring jobs back in-house.
The 2024 budget papers state that the total ASL for the public service in the 2024-25 financial year is expected to be 209,000, which would be 17,000 fewer than the relative size of the public service in 2006-07 as a percentage of the labour force.
Public service to be at the centre of major election battle
Professor Davis' comments follow an address given by Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher earlier in December, in which she declared the public service would be at the centre of a key federal election battle.
"We know the future of the public service will be at the centre of some of that election contest," she said, in a speech she warned would be more politically focused than usual.
"A contest where the government will argue to enhance, promote and protect the role of the public service and the role it plays in our political system.
"And our opponents, who are openly campaigning on cutting 36,000 jobs, a cut equal to reducing the size of the APS by 20 per cent."
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and other senior Liberal MPs have not said they will cut 36,000 public servants if elected.
Instead, Mr Dutton, public service spokesperson Jane Hume and shadow treasurer Angus Taylor have referenced the increase to the public service as wasteful.
Mr Dutton has promised to reprioritise funding away from Canberra office jobs to other priorities such as Defence, while Senator Hume has indicated the Coalition could once again embrace outsourcing.
Nationals Leader David Littleproud has said his party would cut 36,000 public servants if elected but has not repeated those comments since August.
Professor Davis was appointed when Labor took power in June 2022 and advises Prime Minister Anthony Albanese directly.
It is convention for the Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary to be picked by the prime minister of the day, and Professor Davis' job will be on the chopping block if a Coalition government is elected.
"I see a fundamental commitment to public service every day in the people I am proud to call colleagues," he told those gathered in Canberra on Wednesday.
"Our Australian Public Service is an enduring project in the interests of citizens - and an inspiring vocation for those with an ethic of service.
"So, we must listen to the critics, we must worry about efficiency and effectiveness, we must reflect on what we do, and we must find ways to do it better.
"But we should never doubt that our work is honourable and necessary."
