The Albanese Labor Government is delivering on an ambitious Australian Public Service Reform Agenda that will put the Australians who use government services front and centre and rebuild capability across the service.

The Albanese Labor Government is making the necessary investments in the 2023-24 Budget to continue the job of rebuilding the service after ten years of neglect under the former Coalition government.

The 2023-24 Budget allocates funding of:

• $10.9 million to establish an in-house consulting function;
• $8.4 million to build the capability of the APS to address service-wide challenges including:
  • improving gender impact analysis in policy;
  • uplifting APS-wide First Nations cultural competency; and
  • promoting culturally and linguistically diverse capability in the APS.
• $3.4 million to support the Government's commitment to achieve 5% First Nations employment by 2030.

This is an important investment in our public and democratic institutions, and also our community.

The APS performs a critical role in our democratic system, it should be valued by government, and be focused on serving our citizens. Digital and ICT capability is crucial to deliver easy, accessible and secure services for people and business.

The Government is investing $2 billion to modernise government ICT systems and deliver simpler, more secure and connected digital services.

We're investing:

• $195.6 million to provide faster services and help address the backlog of claims for Veterans through enhancements to the Department of Veterans' Affairs ICT systems;
• $134.5 million for myGov to continue to securely support over 25 million user accounts and connect Australians to 15 government services;
• $106.4 million to enable the new Support at Home program in response to the Royal Commission in Aged Care Quality and Safety;
• $26.9 million to make it easier and safer for Australians to verify who they are online; and minimise the risk and impact of data breaches through the Digital ID Program; and
• Funding to replace outdated Australian Electoral Commission ICT systems.

The former government should have started the job of making these critical ICT investments but failed to do so, leaving government service delivery languishing.

The Labor Government is doing the job that the former government refused to do.

Modern IT systems can drive efficiencies across government, save taxpayer money and improve government services delivery through easier and simpler and more user friendly services.