David Johnston (WA, Liberal Party, Shadow Minister for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

asked the Minister representing the Minister for Defence, upon notice, on 20 August 2012:

With reference to the White Paper and the Strategic Reform Program 'Indicative Workforce Implications – Civilian Workforce': for the period 1 January to 30 June 2012, how many personnel, including full-time and part-time, were employed as Australian Public Service staff or contractors?

Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

The Minister for Defence has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

The workforce data detailed in the White Paper and the Strategic Reform Program 'Indicative Workforce Implications' are based on approved allocations at the time of publication and reflect full-time equivalent average numbers. Using the full-time equivalent (FTE) approach, Defence counts full-time and part-time service as one overall average quantity.

Over the period 1 January to 30 June 2012, the Defence civilian workforce increased from 21,891 full-time equivalent APS personnel and 422 contractors, to 22,284 full-time equivalent average APS personnel and 493 contractors. The overall averages over the period were 22,117 APS and 524 contractors.

Note that the large average for contractors is due to fluctuations in contractor numbers over the period, peaking at 586 in March 2012.

The number of contractors employed on 1 January 2012 was reported previously as 416 but has subsequently been found to be 422 upon further review. The variation is due to one Division reviewing its reporting procedures in March 2012 and discovering that it had inadvertently missed a small number of contractors.