'Significant' APS staffing challenges ahead, Home Affairs department briefing outlines

It comes nearly two years after the former Morrison government tied wages of most APS officials to the private sector wage index, leading to the slowest wage growth in more than a decade.

Inflation is also expected to peak at 7.75 per cent in the coming months while skill shortages persist and visa backlogs continue to stack up.

The once-super agency said the economic situation would only add more difficulties to the staff retention issues it was already facing as federal budget pressures cast doubt over upcoming public sector wage increases.

Public servants were leaving the department for other agencies offering more attractive wages, the department outlined in a May brief for the incoming home affairs minister, who was later announced to be Clare O'Neil.

"Public sector wage increases will be limited by federal budget pressures, further escalating attraction and retention issues that the department is already experiencing, in particular for highly skilled and in-demand roles," the department's brief to the minister read.

"There are significant attraction and retention challenges in the department, which reflect those being reported in all workplaces internationally and in Australia.

"The demand for skilled workers is very high."

Boosted pay packets for specialised and in-demand roles had been arranged in the interim for critical government areas and other "strategies" to address attraction and retention issues were working, the department briefing said.

Since January this year, more staff had started with the department had left and it was expected that difference would progress further.

However, wage discrepancies between the Home Affairs department and other agencies within the Canberra market remained a "driving factor" for staff attrition.

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Results from previous employee surveys indicate staff had rated the department's workplace culture, conditions and staff inclusion below-average.

Staff indicated last year they are less likely to be proud to work at the Home Affairs department or recommend it as a good place to work compared to bureaucrats at other large public service workplaces.

Less than half of respondents said they were fairly remunerated for their work, and satisfaction with non-monetary employment conditions was below that for other public service agencies.

A Home Affairs spokesperson responded at the time it was promising to see the results had been an improvement on previous years.

The staffing and budget pressures extend beyond the Home Affairs department.

In an incoming government briefing to the Attorney-General, released last Wednesday, it was revealed a number of portfolio agencies were operating within "constrained resources" and "significant financial pressures".

The Attorney-General's department briefing said it was undertaking a review into the portfolio agencies' financial sustainability.

"The cumulative effects of terminating measures, inflexible financial models, and the systemic vulnerabilities of justice and oversight bodies to workload pressures originating from other portfolios, has resulted in significant financial pressures for some portfolio agencies," the briefing said.

"This is compounded by the challenges that arise for small agencies, which have limited flexibility or capacity to manage unexpected costs, reducing their ability to meet their statutory functions and externally-driven increases to their workloads."