The Australian Public Service (APS) is the federal
civil service
The civil service is a collective term for a sector of government composed mainly of career civil service personnel hired rather than elected, whose institutional tenure typically survives transitions of political leadership. A civil service offic ...
of the
Commonwealth of Australia
Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and numerous smaller islands. It has a total area of , making it the sixth-largest country in ...
responsible for the
public administration
Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...
,
public policy
Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...
, and
public service
A public service or service of general (economic) interest is any service intended to address the needs of aggregate members of a community, whether provided directly by a public sector agency, via public financing available to private busin ...
s of the
departments and
executive and statutory agencies of the
Government of Australia. The Australian Public Service was established at the
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia (which also governed what is now the Northern Territory), and Wester ...
in 1901 as the Commonwealth Public Service and modelled on the
Westminster system
The Westminster system, or Westminster model, is a type of parliamentary system, parliamentary government that incorporates a series of Parliamentary procedure, procedures for operating a legislature, first developed in England. Key aspects of ...
and
United Kingdom's Civil Service. The establishment and operation of the Australian Public Service is governed by the ''
Public Service Act 1999'' of the
Parliament of Australia
The Parliament of Australia (officially the Parliament of the Commonwealth and also known as the Federal Parliament) is the federal legislature of Australia. It consists of three elements: the Monarchy of Australia, monarch of Australia (repr ...
as an "apolitical public service that is efficient and effective in serving the Government, the Parliament and the Australian public". The conduct of Australian public servants is also governed by a Code of Conduct and guided by the APS Values set by the
Australian Public Service Commission.
As such, the employees and officers of the Australian Public Service are obliged to serve the government of the day with integrity and provide "frank and fearless advice" on questions of public policy, from
national security
National security, or national defence (national defense in American English), is the security and Defence (military), defence of a sovereign state, including its Citizenship, citizens, economy, and institutions, which is regarded as a duty of ...
to
fiscal policy
In economics and political science, fiscal policy is the use of government revenue collection ( taxes or tax cuts) and expenditure to influence a country's economy. The use of government revenue expenditures to influence macroeconomic variab ...
to
social security
Welfare spending is a type of government support intended to ensure that members of a society can meet basic human needs such as food and shelter. Social security may either be synonymous with welfare, or refer specifically to social insurance ...
, across
machinery of government
The machinery of government (sometimes abbreviated as MoG) is the interconnected structures and processes of government, such as the functions and accountability of departments in the executive branch of government. The term is used particul ...
arrangements. Indeed, the Australian Public Service plays a major part in Australian life by providing "cradle to grave" services with a degree of shared responsibility with the
State and Territory governments. The Australian Public Service as an entity does not include the broader Commonwealth
public sector
The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, pu ...
including the
Australian Defence Force
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the Armed forces, military organisation responsible for the defence of Australia and its national interests. It consists of three branches: the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army and the Royal Aus ...
, Commonwealth companies such as
NBN Co or the
Australian Rail Track Corporation, or Commonwealth corporate entities such as the
Australian National University or the
Australian Broadcasting Corporation
The Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) is Australia’s principal public service broadcaster. It is funded primarily by grants from the federal government and is administered by a government-appointed board of directors. The ABC is ...
. The Australian Public Service does not include the civil services of the State and Territory governments.
Public servants are ultimately responsible to the Parliament of Australia via their respective portfolio
Minister. The Australian Public Service Commission is responsible for promoting the values of the public service, evaluating performance and compliance, and facilitating the development of people and institutional capabilities.
The Secretary of the
Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet is the most senior public servant and plays a leadership role as the chair of the intergovernmental Secretaries Board made up of all Commonwealth
departmental secretaries.
The
Australian National Audit Office, the
Department of Finance, the
Department of the Treasury, and the
Attorney-General's Department also have whole-of-government oversight and management responsibilities.
As at June 2015, the Australian Public Service comprises some 152,430 officers alongside a further 90,000 people employed in the broader Commonwealth public sector.
Accordingly, the Australian Public Service is one of the largest employers in Australia. As at December 2023 the APS comprises 170,000 people, of which 60.4 percent were female.
As of 2023, the Australian Public Service wage bill was estimated at $33 billion.This was less than 5% of the
Australian Federal Budget for 2023 of $AUD 685 Bn..
History

The Australian public service was established at
Federation of Australia
The Federation of Australia was the process by which the six separate British self-governing colonies of Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania, South Australia (which also governed what is now the Northern Territory), and Wester ...
on 1 January 1901. The departments established on that date were
Attorney-General's,
Defence,
External Affairs,
Home Affairs,
Trade and Customs,
Postmaster-General's, and
Treasury.
The first public service appointments were made under
section 67 of the Constitution of Australia, an arrangement that remained in place until the ''Commonwealth Public Service Act 1902'' commenced on 1 January 1903, at which time there were 11,374 officials employed under the Act.
The ''Commonwealth Public Service Act 1922'' introduced a new legislative framework commencing in 1923, and created the
Public Service Board.
A section in both the 1902 and 1922 Acts stated that every female officer was deemed to have retired from the Commonwealth service upon her marriage.
In November 1966 Australia became the last democratic country to lift the legislated
marriage bar which had prevented married women from holding permanent positions in the public service.
In November 1996,
Peter Reith issued a discussion paper, ''Towards a best practice Australian Public Service''. The paper, among other things, recommended key elements which might need to be incorporated into a new streamlined and principles-based Public Service Act. After several years spent developing a new Act, the ''
Public Service Act 1999'' came into effect on 5 December 1999. The new Act introduced APS Values and a Code of Conduct into the Act for the first time. Public servants who breach the code of conduct can be demoted, fined, reprimanded or fired.
In 2010 a comprehensive reform agenda was introduced as outlined in ''Ahead of the Game: Blueprint for Reform of Australian Government Administration''. The reforms were aimed at strengthening strategic direction, citizen engagement and staff capability across the APS.
Functions and values
Geoff Gallop describes the spectrum of activities undertaken by staff in the APS as fitting into four work functions: service delivery; law making, rule making and policy development; tax collection and managing government finance; and monitoring and enforcing laws and regulations.
The APS Values are set out in section 10 of the ''Public Service Act 1999''.
The Values are mandatory and are intended to embody the principles of good public administration.
The APS Values were most recently revised in 2013, with the aim to comprise a smaller set of core values that are meaningful, memorable and effective in driving change.
The values are stated in section 10 of the ''Public Service Act 1999'' as follows:
*Impartial: The APS is apolitical and provides the Government with advice that is frank, honest, timely and based on the best available evidence.
*Committed to service: The APS is professional, objective, innovative and efficient, and works collaboratively to achieve the best results for the Australian community and the Government.
*Accountable: The APS is open and accountable to the Australian community under the law and within the framework of Ministerial responsibility.
*Respectful: The APS respects all people, including their rights and their heritage.
*Ethical: The APS demonstrates leadership, is trustworthy, and acts with integrity, in all that it does.
Composition
The Australian Public Service formally comprises all Australian Government departments and agencies where staff members are or can be employed under the ''Public Service Act 1999''. At December 2021, there were 155,796 APS employees, up 4.8% from December 2020. Staffing in Australian Public Service agencies accounts for around half of total employment in Australian Government administration. Public servants employed by the Commonwealth Government under legislation other than the Public Service Act include
Australian Defence Force
The Australian Defence Force (ADF) is the Armed forces, military organisation responsible for the defence of Australia and its national interests. It consists of three branches: the Royal Australian Navy (RAN), Australian Army and the Royal Aus ...
personnel, government business enterprise employees, parliamentary staff,
Australian Federal Police staff and public servants under other Commonwealth agency-specific legislation.
In the decade to December 2012 the APS grew in numbers; there was also notable 'classification creep', in which a higher proportion of staff are employed at higher pay-grade levels. Before the
2013 federal election, the
Coalition
A coalition is formed when two or more people or groups temporarily work together to achieve a common goal. The term is most frequently used to denote a formation of power in political, military, or economic spaces.
Formation
According to ''A G ...
promised to reduce the size of the public service by at least 12,000 jobs, through natural attrition.
Joe Hockey told an Adelaide radio station in May 2013 that the Coalition planned for the loss of 12,000 public service jobs to be just a starting point in the first two years of a Coalition government.
Demographics
57.9 per cent of all APS employees are women. 36.9 per cent of APS employees work in the
Australian Capital Territory
The Australian Capital Territory (ACT), known as the Federal Capital Territory until 1938, is an internal States and territories of Australia, territory of Australia. Canberra, the capital city of Australia, is situated within the territory, an ...
.
At June 2013, the median age for ongoing APS employees was 43 years. Like the Australian population, the APS workforce has been ageing rapidly since the early 1990s.
At December 2023 the largest federal government agency was
Services Australia with 31,797 employees, followed by the
Australian Taxation Office with 21,019 employees and the
Department of Defence with 19,059. The
Department of Home Affairs had 15,140 employees, the
National Disability Insurance Agency 6,818 and the
Department of Health and Aged Care 6,566.
In 2023 there was a ratio of one APS official for every 161 Australians, compared to 1991 ratios of 1:106 and a ratio of 1:58 in 1968.
In June 2024 APS staff were 1.36% of the Australian workforce, compared to 1.52% in 2008.
As of 2024, 36.9% of the APS worked in the ACT, 17.3% in NSW, and 16.6% in Victoria, with the rest in other states and territories.
Measuring APS performance
Beginning in 2009–10 all APS entities were required to report in accordance with the Outcomes and Programs Framework, whereby programs provide the link between Australian Government decisions, activities and their actual outcomes. In the Outcomes and Programs Framework, organisations identify and report against the programs that contribute to government outcomes over the budget and forward years. All APS agencies contribute to Portfolio Budget Statements that inform
Parliament
In modern politics and history, a parliament is a legislative body of government. Generally, a modern parliament has three functions: Representation (politics), representing the Election#Suffrage, electorate, making laws, and overseeing ...
and the public of the proposed allocation of Government outcomes.
Portfolio budget statements outline:
*outcome statements, which specifically articulate the intended results, impacts or consequences of actions by the Government on the Australian community;
*programs to address outcomes, which are designed to deliver benefits, services or transfer payments to target groups; and
*resourcing information, deliverables and key performance indicators for each program.
Annual reports report performance of agencies in relation to services provided.
Prior to the introduction of the Outcomes and Programs Framework APS entities reported against an Outcomes and Outputs Framework, which had been introduced in 1999. Reforms have been progressively introduced to the APS with the specific aim of making it more efficient, accountable and responsive to community needs since the mid-1980s.
The
Australian National Audit Office provides the Australian Parliament and the public with an independent assessment of selected areas of public administration in the APS, and assurance about APS financial reporting, administration and accountability.
Benchmarking the APS
In November 2009
KPMG published a report benchmarking Australian Public Service performance against international public services. The report found that the APS measured up well against some of the world's leading public services. The report found that the APS is a high performer compared to other public services when it came to: being responsive to economic changes; being independent and values-based; and for proportions of women employed. It found that the APS performed poorly in: its capability for coordinated, informed and strategic policy; its mechanisms for integrating external stakeholders into policy development and service design; and its understanding of government priorities through an overarching framework.
Public opinion and criticism
The APS is often the target of public criticism. For example, in 2013, Alan Moran, the director of deregulation at the conservative libertarian think tank the
Institute of Public Affairs
The Institute of Public Affairs (IPA) is a conservative non-profit free market public policy think tank,
Political links and networking
The IPA Victoria was founded during World War II by businessmen in response to the feared growing power of ...
, argued that the Australian Government was not seeking enough savings from a bloated Australian Public Service. In October 2013, newly appointed Defence Minister
David Johnston told media he had "inherited a mess" and that he believed that in the Defence department "23,000 public servants is too heavy." The Noetic group said in 2014 that most Australian Public Service organisations could not demonstrate the benefits from large and expensive programs of work.
Other commentators, including political scientist
Richard Mulgan, have argued that rhetoric in 2013 about a bloated APS is ill-informed and unsustainable, if service benchmarks are to be met. Rob Burgess, in a ''
Business Spectator'' article in November 2012 argued that
efficiency dividends imposed on the public service are actually delivering one of the world's leaner public sectors.
Personnel organisation
All APS vacancies for ongoing and non-ongoing jobs for more than 12 months are notified in the APS Employment Gazette, a weekly electronic publication.
Public service wages were decentralised in 1997, allowing individual APS agencies to negotiate their own pay deals.
Individual Australian Government agency websites also advertise jobs and some jobs are advertised on external job boards, such as in newspapers.
[
]
Employment classifications
The Australian Public Service (APS) career structure is hierarchical. The table below lists APS employment classification levels from lowest to highest.
: Position titles vary across APS agencies.
: Total annual base includes base salary, plus benefits such as superannuation, annual base salary scales vary across APS agencies.
Leadership
The Australian Public Service Commission (APSC) is responsible to the Minister for the Public Service. The APSC is led by a Commissioner, who is tasked with promoting the APS Values, evaluating public service performance and compliance, and helping to build the capability of the Service.
The Government also recognises a role for the Secretary of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet for certain aspects of leadership of the APS.
See also
* List of Australian Government entities
* Judiciary of Australia
* Public Service Medal (Australia)
* British Civil Service
Concepts:
* Bureaucracy
Bureaucracy ( ) is a system of organization where laws or regulatory authority are implemented by civil servants or non-elected officials (most of the time). Historically, a bureaucracy was a government administration managed by departments ...
* Public administration
Public administration, or public policy and administration refers to "the management of public programs", or the "translation of politics into the reality that citizens see every day",Kettl, Donald and James Fessler. 2009. ''The Politics of the ...
* Public policy
Public policy is an institutionalized proposal or a Group decision-making, decided set of elements like laws, regulations, guidelines, and actions to Problem solving, solve or address relevant and problematic social issues, guided by a conceptio ...
* Public sector
The public sector, also called the state sector, is the part of the economy composed of both public services and public enterprises. Public sectors include the public goods and governmental services such as the military, law enforcement, pu ...
* Public service
A public service or service of general (economic) interest is any service intended to address the needs of aggregate members of a community, whether provided directly by a public sector agency, via public financing available to private busin ...
Notes
References and further reading
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
*
External links
Australian Federal Government
*
APS Jobs
*
''Public Service Gazette''
(archived 19 June 2000)
{{Australia topics
Civil service by country
Public policy in Australia
1901 establishments in Australia