The staffing cap - a masterclass in cutting corners

In the 2015-16 Budget, then Prime Minister, Tony Abbott implemented the Average Staffing Level (ASL) cap across the Australian Public Service. This policy was sold to Australians as a cost-saving measure that had to happen; in reality, it was just another attack on our vital public services and the workers that provide them.  

Tony Abbott's staffing cap on the Public Service is a masterclass in cutting corners.  

Instead of doing the job properly by directly employing the people we need to get the job done. The staffing cap has forced our public service agencies to rely on contractors, consultants, and labour hire firms to fill in the gaps. Being forced to rely on labour hire and consultants means government agencies end up spending more, while creating insecure jobs, increasing the casualisation of the workforce and adding to low wages growth outcomes.  

It is a false economy.  

The point of the Average Level Staffing cap is to keep the size of the Australian Public Service (APS) around or below 2006-07 staffing levels (167,596). To give you a sense of how ridiculous this is, there were more APS employees in June 1992 than there were in December 2019. Over that same period, the Australian population has grown by 45.7%!   

The staffing cap has resulted in a dramatic rise in the number of Australians per public service worker over the past twenty-five years. We have roughly one civil servant per 152 citizens.  

More Australians are working for Woolworths and its subsidiaries than for the APS. 

Demand for services and support continue to grow, as demonstrated by the lines outside of Centrelink offices during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, the tens of millions of unanswered Centrelink calls, biosecurity failures and delays in Medicare processing.  

The staffing cap means people are not getting the help they need when they need it.  

The Coalition Government has spent at least $2 billion in six years on outside contractors according to a recent analysis by the Auditor-General. 

Even if an agency has the budget to hire more staff, the staffing cap stops them from doing so. The only option they have is to outsource the work and hire and workers through labour hire companies. As you can imagine this ends up being quite a lucrative business model for these companies who are not afraid to take their cut at the expense of the worker.

Our public services provide the foundations for our country to grow and for our communities to succeed. These foundations are being eroded by people who care more about a budget bottom line than our communities having access to vital public services and workers having access to decent, secure jobs they can rely on. 

The CPSU has been calling for the end of the staffing cap. We must allow agencies to hire people directly. We must ensure we have enough people to get the work done and be allowed to create the secure jobs and career pathways Australians need. 

The CPSU is not alone in raising concerns about the capacity of the public sector.  

Terry Moran, the former Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet has noted that there has been an overuse of consultants and the public service has been stripped of specialist capability and service delivery experience.  

Commonwealth agencies are on the record stating that the staffing cap is forcing them to use contractors, increasing costs and affecting the capability of agencies. A 2017 Productivity Commission report found the staffing cap potentially led "to poorer outcomes".  

The 2019 Australian Public Service review recommended abolishing the Average Staffing Level (ASL cap), investing in the APS, and implementing standardised pay and conditions across the Service. The Morrison Government has instead rejected these and other key recommendations. 

The Review also stated that "staffing-level caps have made it difficult for agency heads to retain some functions or to maintain them at the same size and strength as previous years" and that "Labour contractors and consultants are increasingly being used to perform work that has previously been core in-house capability, such as program management." 

Despite the Morrison Governments marketing and spin, there are no savings, only accounting tricks, and small government ideology. We spend more to hire through labour-hire firms while investing less in our public services, our people and our future. 

Direct employment would mean better outcomes for the people doing the work and the people accessing our services.  

Join our campaign to rebuild the capacity of our public service.