Update to SQ26-000005 - Average Staffing Levels

Question

Senator O'SULLIVAN: I have one quick question. I wanted to ask something in relation to ASL. BP 4 shows department ASL falling from 1701 to 1638. What areas are losing staff? Mr Cook: We've actually got a detailed list that might take a little while to read out because some of this will be things like 0.2, 0.5, 0.4 and 0.6 of staff. Senator O'SULLIVAN: I don't want to take up much time going- Mr Cook: Let's give you the headlines- Senator O'SULLIVAN: Yes, give me headlines. I'm particularly interested in the childcare area. Mr Cook: It is predominantly terminating programs where the reductions will be. They're programs where the funding has terminated as part of the normal course of programs. Mr Markovic can give you some help. Senator O'SULLIVAN: Why don't you just provide that to use as a table on notice. That's fine. Will that give us information by division? Mr Cook: We could probably map it to group, which is the next highest structure. Is it early childhood? Is it schools? Is it higher education? Is it corporate? Mapping it down to division, in some cases, is a bit trickier. Senator O'SULLIVAN: Group is fine. Can I ask, then, how many staff are currently working on childcare policy? Mr Cook: Effectively almost all of our staff in child care work on childcare policy. If you're after the number of staff in the childcare group, it's 541.8 FTE. Senator O'SULLIVAN: Has that changed from previous years? Mr Cook: It's increased, I understand. Senator O'SULLIVAN: By how much? Mr Cook: I don't have that available to me, but Mr Markovic might be able to help. Mr Markovic: It has increased, in line with some of the government's measures around safety, and we have tabled a question on notice to actually describe all of those increases in the last round. We'll need to dig that out of the pack, but, yes, there were a range of increases as a result of measures announced in previous budgets around safety and quality. In the MYEFO update, for example, there were 861/2 resources. That increased to the figure the secretary just spoke to around safety and quality. There have been a number of compliance related measures as well to ensure integrity in the payments that are being made. There's an example, probably, in the 2024-25 budget. There was an increase of 175 resources over a short period. There is a question which, if you give me a couple of minutes, I'll try and find and itemises that for you. Senator O'SULLIVAN: Have any staff been allocated to the proposed commission? Mr Cook: To the commission, no. Our policy teams will be doing work around the commission- Senator O'SULLIVAN: You're exploring it. How many staff are working on that? Mr Cook: I don't know. When early childhood is here, they'll be able to help. I'm sorry. Mr Markovic: In SQ26-00005, we responded to a question from Senator Kovacic asking us to itemise the changes. In there it has the early childhood changes for each of the budget rounds- Senator O'SULLIVAN: But that would have been from previous budgets. Mr Markovic: Back to 2023-24. Senator O'SULLIVAN: What about- Mr Markovic: For the current budget, I'll take it on notice. It has every budget update, MYEFO and budget back to 2023-24, and it provides a table. Senator O'SULLIVAN: Just an update to that question on notice- Mr Markovic: If I update that table and indicate which groups, which you just also asked-we will provide an update on that. Senator O'SULLIVAN: We'll work with that. That's nice and efficient.

Answer

Please see the attached PDF.

Documents

• Question with answer (PDF) (opens in a new tab)
• SQ26-000674.pdf (opens in a new tab)