The Community and Public Sector Union has heartily welcomed Labor’s first major rebuilding of Australian Public Service (APS) numbers since its election, with national secretary Melissa Donnelly pushing for union credit for the headcount increase of 10,800 jobs.
In an overt flexing of the CPSU’s muscle on returning to the political field after being shunned by the former government, the union has used its Budget assessment to send a firm reminder to treasurer Jim Chalmers and finance minister Katy Gallagher that it was its rank and file members on the frontline handing the current government political ammunition through the dark decade.
“CPSU members fought hard against the former government’s agenda and have continued that fight to ensure public services remain a priority under the current government,” Donnelly said.
“The commitments included in the Albanese government’s second budget are a result of CPSU members’ steadfast commitment to building the public service up to where the community needs them to be.”
The union’s gentle flexing will be interpreted within the public service as a reminder to Gallagher, who is also minister for the public service, of her industrial roots at the CPSU, and her position as a senator in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) that also just elected Independent David Pocock.
The CPSU is the biggest union in the generally progressive-leaning ACT, with Labor and the union previously critical about the former government’s ritual Canberra-bashing trope that resulted in decentralisation boondoggles like former deputy prime minister Barnaby Joyce trying to get highly specialised public servants to move to Armidale for a taste of regional Australia.
Tuesday’s Budget was very much a hometown play for both the APS and CPSU, who are about to sit down to serious pay bargaining next week with the government via the Australian Public Service Commission, which acts as the government’s industrial agent.
Donnelly has bowled up a feisty 20% pay rise claim, which Gallagher has dismissed as impossible, in the predictable ambit first round of negotiations.
What’s less known is what the CPSU is prepared to trade in the way of productivity increases to take the inflationary sting out of a double-digit pay rise, with Reserve Bank governor Philip Lowe warning pre-Budget that productivity growth needs to rise alongside wages to stop a spiral and the need for further interest rate rises, when asked about the CPSU claim.
There was no mention of APS bargaining on Tuesday from either Gallagher or the union, prudent caution given any perception of a steep APS wage hike on the back of a 6% headcount increase would give the beleaguered Opposition a viable line of attack on inflation.
Donnelly wasted no time in cataloguing the previous regime’s shortcomings to sandbag and provide a little narrative contrast lest they smell opportunity.
“The alternative to investing in public sector staff is to do what Scott Morrison did and throw $21 billion of taxpayer money at self-interested, profit-driven, private companies that are swimming in conflict-of-interest risks,” Donnelly said.
“In recent days, the Liberal senator Jane Hume has defended her party’s addiction to outsourcing and attacked the efforts to rebuild APS capacity, all amid the ongoing PwC scandal.”
Gallagher has proposed an in-house APS consulting model that works as a tech solution and shared services advisory level, but it would necessarily lack the sharpness that external scrutiny can bring.
That project gained $10.9 million in the Budget as seed funding, but it is clear there is still a yawning internal tech skills deficit within the APS that current salaries just do not come near in terms of meeting the market.
The Australian Computer Society (ACS) played a straight bat to the Budget — the professional group makes a decent living advising on and accrediting tech skills for migrants — delivering its own message on where the skills market was headed nationally rather than in Canberra.
“The ACS acknowledges the challenges facing the federal government with the 2023 Budget and its focus on social programs to make Australia one of the best places in the world to live. While we welcome the spending allocated to growing the nation’s critical technology industries, we would urge the government to consider the strategic importance of the sector to Australia’s economy,” said ACS chief executive Chris Vein.
“With nearly a million Australians working in technology roles by the end of the year, more support and recognition for the sector is required. We will continue to work with the government to raise the importance of boosting the nation’s digital skills and capabilities.”
The organisation’s views on restoring government technology ranks over the coming months will be telling, especially given the increasing number of tech industry lobby groups that are not traditionally industrially aligned.
For the CPSU, the Budget is a win, and it was happy to put some numbers — potential members too — on the table in a victory lap.
“These job increases and funding boosts will increase the capacity and capability of the APS and help deliver better public services to Australian families and communities,” the union said in a statement.
“Since the Albanese Labor Government was elected, the CPSU has secured more than a 10% increase to APS staffing levels.”
Let’s see how relations fare when the arm-twisting on pay starts next week.
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