16 public sector changes from today

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1. The Digital Transformation Office officially opens on July 1, and we hear a permanent CEO announcement is only just around the corner.
2. The Australian Border Force takes up arms, with its own dedicated training college and the ABF Commissioner sitting at the same tables as the Chief of the Defence Force, director-general of ASIO and Federal Police Commissioner. The Australian Customs and Border Protection Service will be disestablished on Tuesday, according to Department of Immigration and Border Protection secretary Michael Pezzullo.
3. Defence Materiel Organisation is absorbed back into the Department of Defence with a new internal entity taking on DMO’s previous job of managing major acquisitions as well as parts of Capability Development Group, the ADF’s lobbying arm that was also axed in the First Principles Review recommendations.
4. The Australian Government Solicitor is no more, devolved back into the Attorney-General’s Department and sparking an “efficiency” review of government legal practices that will take another six months.
5. The Australian Public Service Commissioner gives agencies back the power to hire staff from outside the APS, but warns he will revoke it from individual agencies that don’t exercise “restraint”.
6. Phase two of the Commonwealth Finance Minister’s ‘smaller government measures‘ takes effect.
7. The first ever mandatory target for procurement from suppliers that are at least 50% indigenous-owned takes effect.
8. The Office of the Children’s eSafety Commissioner opens with new powers and complaints service ready to go.
9. The NSW Department of Education and Communities will be split up and have “Community” shorn from its name. Community functions are going to Department of Family and Community Services, except Aboriginal Affairs which stays in Education.
10. The NSW Department of Trade Investment, Regional Infrastructure and Services is also no more. Department of Premier and Cabinet takes over its Trade Development branch, while the remainder largely goes to the new Department of Industry, Skills and Regional Development, also picking up State Training Services from Education.
11. Consolidation occurs in the NSW Justice Department, which absorbs the NSW Ministry for Police and Emergency Services, the Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing plus its support staff, Screen NSW, and public servants who mainly administer Arts portfolio legislation.
12. The NSW Office of Finance, Services and Innovation gets an upgrade to “the Department of” and welcomes public servants who administer to the Charitable Fundraising Act, the Mine Subsidence Compensation Act, the Biofuels Act and the Professional Standards Act. It also takes on those supporting the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority and the Building Professionals Board, who were formerly at the Department of Planning and Development.
13. Victorian Competition and Efficiency Commission ceases to be, with those functions now being employed in the Department of Premier and Cabinet.
14. Western Australia’s Public Service Commissioner will take over minor misconduct matters, while the Corruption and Crime Commission will focus on serious wrongdoing and police integrity.
15. Western Australia’s Drug and Alcohol Office also merges with the Mental Health Commission, and specialist courts for family violence are abolished.
16. Northern Territory public sector heads now share responsibility for economic development of indigenous communities as a consequence of the Department of Indigenous Advancement being abolished.

Are there changes at your agency? Let us know in the comments below, or reach out to our staff.

Correction: We jumped the gun on paid parental leave. The changes don’t come into effect until July 1, 2016.