The impact of staff ceilings on the Australian Public Service

Abstract

Staff ceilings have played a central role in regulating the size of the Australian Public Service since 1971. They have been in force throughout 1971-83 apart from two short periods: December 1972-June 1973 and January 1975-June 1975. Prime Minister Gorton imposed staff ceilings in February 1971 to limit the growth of the Public Service. The immediate reason was to curtail the public sector spending to curb inflation. Since then, successive governments, including the Whitlam-Labor Government, have applied staff ceilings as the principal measure to limit the Public Service growth. Judging from its influence on the management of human resources in the public sector and the consequential developments which have taken place in the Service, the introduction of staff ceilings can be viewed as one of the most significant administrative developments in the Australian Public Service in recent time. Staff ceilings have not only affected the growth of the Public Service but have also influenced its entire range of activities and operations. The administrators have been forced to think in terms of introducing organisational changes in the face of declining human resources. The rearrangement of priorities has taken place, although mainly as a consequence of pressure rather than of explicit decision. Competition amongst the public sector managers for sharing the limited resources has forced them to think of new management strategies. From the political standpoint, the staff ceilings have been used to satisfy an electorate which has increasingly become critical of the bureaucratic growth in recent years as a result of higher and higher tax burden, rising inflation and increased bureaucratic intervention and 'intrusion* in their lives. The Whitlam Labor Government used staff ceilings as a measure to curtail public sector expenditure to contain inflation whereas the L-NCP coalition Government since 1975 have used staff ceilings as an important tool to reduce the size of the public sector in line with their philosophy of 'small government'. Although the Australian Labor Party consistently criticised the imposition of staff ceilings in the way they have been applied in the Service by the Fraser Government throughout 1975-83 period, the Hawke-Labor Government has not abandoned them. They also see some virtue to control an 'ever-growing government bureaucracy'. All these factors provided a positive motivation to undertake the present study.