Government spends approximately $1.2 billion annually on around 42,000 publicly-funded employees, according to Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister, Professor Biman Prasad.
In the 2024-2025 Budget address, he announced that the State plans to collaborate with the Australian Government to conduct a comprehensive functional review of the civil service establishment and salary structure across public entities.
Prof Prasad emphasized the urgent need to achieve salary parity among publicly-funded employees and to appropriately size the workforce. He attributed the significant increase in civil servants to the “so-called civil service reforms” and the 2013 constitutional changes, which transferred central oversight and establishment control of the civil service from the Public Service Commission to respective Permanent Secretaries.
“Today, we have more than 42,000 publicly funded employees, including around 38,000 in the civil service and almost 4,000 in independent institutions and state-funded entities. This comes at a considerable cost of around $1.2 billion,” the Deputy PM stated.