Victoria’s public service is professional, highly skilled and plays a fundamental role in delivering the services that matter most to Victorians. The government will make sure the public service makes prudent use of resources, while delivering high-quality and cost-effective services for Victorians.
Since the end of the pandemic, the government has worked consistently to return the public service to its pre-pandemic share of employment, with the public service consistently decreasing as a proportion of the public sector workforce since 2021. Public service FTE as a percentage of the total public sector workforce was 17.4% at June 2024, decreasing from its highest level of 19.6% at June 2021.
But the Review found the public service has become ‘top-heavy’ in recent years, with a disproportionate growth of senior roles. It recommends rebalancing the workforce to reduce the proportion of senior roles and levels of hierarchy, while granting greater autonomy to employees at middle levels and creating more entry-level roles.
The government supports this approach and confirms that frontline services will not be affected by these changes.
Rebalancing the public service, better empowering non-executive public servants and maintaining fiscal discipline is critical for ensuring that funding is directed to the priorities of Victorians.
The government will:
- reduce executive and executive-like roles by 332 across the public service, which the Review estimates will save $359 million over the forward estimates
- reduce the proportion of senior VPS5 and VPS6 positions, estimated by the Review to save $125 million over the forward estimates.
The public service workforce will be rebalanced through careful workforce planning, natural attrition and staff consultation.
Public service body heads will have regard to the Public Administration Act 2004 and the Victorian Public Service Enterprise Agreement 2024 in implementing these changes.
We will support the public service to keep delivering high-quality services and advice to government while implementing these reforms through forward-looking capability reviews. These will assess agency capabilities and ensure departments are able to meet future challenges and deliver on the priorities of Victorians.
The Review notes that spending on consultants and contractors is now less than before the pandemic, but we will go further and reduce reliance on external services and seek to retain expertise in the public service.
The government will:
- reduce consultant and contractor spend by another 10%.
Updated