Senate Community Affairs Legislation Committee, , 4:15:17 to 4:18:16
The NDIA confirms a voluntary redundancy round is underway to manage the agency's budget envelope, with approximately 6.5% of staff expressing interest.
Topics: Public service staffing, Government spending
Speakers: Matthew Swainson, Chris Gatenby, Speaker 39, Unknown Speaker
That's correct, Senator.
Um how many roles do you need to reduce your FTE by as part of the process?
So, Senator, we we don't have a set target for this round. Um the expression of interest process closed on the 16th of October. Uh we're in the process of assessing uh each application as part of that process to determine whether the position is required for a critical business need, whether it's a frontline position that's needed to provide service for participants or for to or to deliver reform. So we don't actually have a number or a target in mind, but uh we are assessing those applications right now.
And being the voluntary uh proposal that you've got forward, what about natural attrition? Could it not have been achieved through that?
Uh Senator, we've had um a range of workforce uh governance uh arrangements in place uh for this financial year. Uh that included, I guess, greater scrutiny on our recruitment decisions. Uh we were experiencing um a small reduction through uh natural attrition of our workforce through those processes, but uh we wouldn't have uh uh come down to the level uh that would meet our budget envelope for this financial year through those processes. So we've um introduced a voluntary um redundancy program. Uh it is as you noted it is voluntary uh and we don't have a number and a target in place, but we're assessing those applications as we speak.
So then based on that, so what is your natural attrition rate then that obviously one's going to meet whatever you're seeing to achieve?
It's the lowest across the service, it's just under six per cent.
Um and have you had many expressions of interest to date that you've received for the voluntary redundancies?
Uh we've had a number. Um, as I said, it closed on the 16th of October. I I can give you that number if that would be of interest.
Great. And just at the APS level would be useful if you're able to provide that.
I don't have it to hand. We'll see if we can provide it to you through the course of the hearing. So the number of expressions of interest that we uh have received is around about six and a half per cent of our workforce. Uh made an expression of interest to go through that process, but as I said, we are working through those applications and we've not yet made a decision on which of those expressions of interest will be accepted for a voluntary redundancy.
All right. And then when do you expect to make a decision on some of those redundancies?
We would expect decisions to be made over the coming months, uh certainly before the end of uh the calendar year.
Uh is there a monetary budget that you need to spend within for these redundancies?
Uh we have certainly got a strong commitment for the agency itself to manage its workforce and its budget within uh the budget envelope that we've been provided I think your question goes to whether or not we've got a bucket of money under which we'll be um uh looking at those uh voluntary redundancies, and no, we don't, Senator. As I said, each application has been assessed on a case-by-case basis.