‘Deeply concerning’: Dept of Ag swells by 30pc in three years

Since Labor came to office in 2022, public service roles within the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry has swelled, despite the loss of the water and environment divisions.

The number of public servants working for the Department of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has swelled by almost 30 per cent in three years.

This is despite the water and environment functions of the former Coalition government’s Department of Agriculture, Water and Environment being carved off and handed to the new Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water on July 1, 2022, shortly after Labor came to office.

The departmental shake-up saw staff numbers fall almost 20 per cent, but since then DAFF’s headcount has risen more than 27 per cent to 6373 people.

A DAFF spokeswoman said almost half of these new workers are frontline or “direct support roles” in the biosecurity and compliance area.

The Institute of Public Affairs’ head of research, Morgan Begg, said such a substantial increase in the public service was deeply concerning, and followed a similar trend underway at DCCEEW, which has witnessed a 72 per cent increase in staff numbers, also within the past three years.

“What that indicates to me is that half are not in biosecurity and are involved in direct regulation of our primary industries and they’re growing every year,” Mr Begg said.

“These new employees are chiefly involved in enforcing regulations, and this is critical because our agriculture sector is overregulated as it is. Every new worker added to the department equates to another form to be filled out, another fence that can’t be built yet and more hassle and stress for our already overburdened ag sector,” Mr Begg said.

A DAFF spokeswoman said the department was trying to reduce the outsourcing of its core work.

“In 2023-24, the department converted 62 external contractors to Australian Public Service roles. The conversion target for this financial year, as outlined in the department’s corporate plan, is 52,” she said.

Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher says the size of the public service is expected to remain the same, following a significant increase since Labor came to office in 2022. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher said the Albanese Government has been rebuilding the capacity of the public service and reigning in the former Coalition government’s use of contractors by progressively bringing them on as full-time public servants.

“Under the Coalition, the size of the APS was kept artificially low through staffing caps and the excessive use of contractors and consultants, which cost taxpayers $20.8 billion in 2021-22,” Ms Gallagher said.

“Thousands of these roles have been converted into permanent public service positions. The APS is now at approximately the right size to deliver for the Australian people, and the priority in this second term is to maintain – rather than substantially grow or cut – this workforce.”

The size of Australia’s public service came under increased scrutiny during the election campaign, when it was targeted for cuts of up to 41,000 workers by the Coalition in a bid to fund more than $8bn in health spending and other commitments.

On a per capita basis, Australia has the largest bureaucracy in the world, according to the United Nations’ International Labour Organisation, which compiles data on 178 countries.

The latest DAFF annual report for 2023-24 shows that the department met almost all of its performance targets, from the finalisation of biosecurity risk assessments within regulatory time frames to the number of biosecurity preparedness exercises completed.

But over the last three years there have been few policies – from shuttering the live sheep export trade to water purchases from irrigators in the Murray Darling Basin – the Albanese Government has delivered that have earned the support of the agriculture sector.