Senate Economics Legislation Committee [Part 2], , 4:08:06 to 4:10:23
Examination of Housing Australia's staffing levels, focusing on the ten-person Public Affairs and Government Relations team and their role in managing ministerial business and media communications.
Topics: Public service staffing, Government spending
Speakers: Sarah Amos, Senator Andrew Bragg, Unknown Speaker, Senator Lisa Darmanin
people are working in Housing Australia
>> Senator? I'll just find the exact number, but it's 2 67 off the top of my head. I just want to confirm that for So, sorry, pardon me. It was um as at 31 August, there are currently 257 staff employed at Housing Australia.
>> 250. Okay.
>> 257.
and how many are in corporate and
>> Thank you for the question, Senator. Um, I'll just find out some details for you,
>> Senator. I have to rotate the So,
>> so Senator, um, we have a function that's called public affairs and government relations. Is that the function you're asking about?
>> Yeah, I've been asking these questions to years to all sorts of different government agencies because it bevils me that the government would have a government affairs department. Um, and so I'm not picking on Housing Australia. I think it's a very strange and unusual decision to spend taxpayer funds this way. So yes, how many people work there and how much does the function cost?
>> Uh I think the key things I'd like to call out um Senator is that that team has a range of of functions and responsibilities. So they manage the flow of government business. So that is things like ministerial and departmental requests, questions or notice, senus orders, um senate orders. They um manage our corporate and regulatory reporting requirements. Yeah. They look after media and communications. They look after stakeholder and industry engagement. They look after events and speaking engagements, corporate planning and performance reporting, data and program insights to and to support our continuous improvement across the organization. So this is a team that undertakes a range of functions. Um, and I I think the the title probably is less relevant to the functions that they actually undertake. Um, that team comprises 10 staff. So that's about 4% of Housing Australia's current work. >> uh, Senator, I don't believe I have that specific detail with me. I can look to
Now might be a good time. I'm going to rotate the call. Senator McGrath.