Ten things we learned from APS-wide enterprise bargaining

In the run of great election promises that followed the election of the Albanese government, the restoration of government services delivered by properly paid public servants employed directly by the commonwealth as opposed to outsourcers has been a key deliverable along with the scrapping of the wages cap.

After the initially flatfooted response by Services Australia and its minister, Stuart Robert, to COVID and the subsequent lockdowns that put the economy into a temporary deep freeze, the characterisation of public services as having been run down, flogged-off to outsourcers and consulting mates and starved of fair pay rises has provided Labor with a potent cut-through both before and after the election.