APS Commissioner message
Welcome to the State of the Service Report 2024–25, a collaboration between the Australian Public Service Commission and APS agencies.
Under the Public Service Act 1999, this report to Parliament is a key mechanism for transparency about the Australian Public Service ꟷ its workforce and workplaces, integrity and capability. It shows where the APS is now, in the context of where we have been and where we are going.
In addition to bringing together data from many sources, the report offers insights into the people of the APS and the services we deliver. This year, there are individual profiles contributed from the 6 APS Professions and 16 stories of how agencies are serving the community, working with non-government, business and research partners.
A federal election was held in May 2025, involving a temporary workforce of more than 99,000 staff at more than 7,200 polling places around the country. The APS can be proud of the role it plays in the peaceful formation of government in Australia, from supporting rigorous election processes to the agency briefings that assist the incoming Government to get underway.
APS Commissioner Dr Gordon de Brouwer
Image: Australian Public Service Commission
Engaging with a changing world
The Australia in the World 2025 Snapshot outlines the global environment of ‘increasing strategic surprise’ the Australian Government operates in. Shifts and disruptions are occurring across every dimension of Australia’s international engagement. At the same time, opportunities are emerging from these political and economic transitions.
While some APS agencies are heavily involved in positioning Australia for a less predictable, rapidly changing world, almost all APS agencies have a part to play. Few spheres of Australian Government activity are unaffected by international considerations or connections. Together we are navigating changes to the global post-war order, and major structural transformations driven by demographic, technological and environmental factors.
Linkages between public service institutions are important, now more than ever. While always remaining responsive to the governments we serve, these connections ensure key country-to-country relationships are maintained over time. We learn from each other as we tackle many of the same issues and pressures.
Australian public administration in a global context
As stewards of the APS, we take an interest in where Australian public administration sits in a global context – where we are performing well, and what we can continue to improve.
Roundtable discussions like the Global Government Summit hosted by the Singapore Government in January 2025 provide valuable opportunities to meet with international counterparts to discuss matters of common interest including the pillars of modern, effective civil services.
Benchmarking studies released in the past year, including the OECD Government at a Glance 2025 and the Blavatnik Index of Public Administration 2024 from the University of Oxford, assess performance across key functions of government using different approaches.
Australia is performing above the OECD average on key composite measures including trust, prosperity and satisfaction with public services, achieving results with good governance practices and use and management of public institutions’ resources. An area identified by the OECD for continued focus by Australia is our performance in relation to open, useful and re-usable data. Across its 4 domains – strategy and leadership, public policy, national delivery and people and processes – Australia ranked 8th out of 120 countries on the Blavatnik Index of Public Administration 2024.
Engaging with counterparts in other public services, and considering the comparative results of international studies, provides understanding of Australia’s own policy perspectives and an evidence base for improving government services.
Highlights from this report
Results from the Trust in Australian public services: 2025 Annual Report show that trust in Australian public services has increased significantly in the past year by 4 percentage points to 62%. This is the first time it has increased since the COVID-19 pandemic, and matches the peak level reported in 2021.
Trust in specific services has increased to 73% in 2025, compared with 71% in 2024. Trust and/or satisfaction has increased by more than 5 percentage points in 5 agencies: Centrelink; Veterans’ Affairs; Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; Employment and Workplace Relations and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.
When asked why their trust had increased, people most often talked about reduced wait times, improved digital services, greater transparency and communication, and improved service quality and staff helpfulness. Government decisions on public service resourcing and a sustained focus on effectiveness, capability and integrity make a big difference to the service delivery experience of the Australian people.
Advances in technology over recent decades have transformed what the APS workforce can deliver, and this is accelerating.
Within a policy framework for the safe and responsible adoption of AI, the APS is building capability to use new tools to enhance its operations and public-facing services. Agencies use AI transparency statements to set out their approaches so that the public can understand why and how they are using AI tools to support their work.
This year’s report has 12 case studies demonstrating how APS agencies are responding to the opportunities offered by increasing use of AI. These case studies span service delivery, compliance and fraud detection, law enforcement and security, scientific endeavours and corporate and enabling services.
APS agencies are building and implementing technologies in-house to drive innovation and efficiency gains in public-facing services. Some are collaborating with research and industry partners to leverage expertise and technologies that support economic and environmental outcomes. Other agencies are building platforms to support APS-wide activities, or manage the adoption of AI in their specific agency contexts.
Finally, I want to highlight the very positive results from the 2025 APS Employee Census. More than 151,000 APS employees (81%) participated in the survey this year, continuing its high value as a source of information about the APS workforce.
Overall APS results on census indices for communication (70), employee engagement (75), enabling innovation (68), perceptions of SES leaders (71), and perceptions of wellbeing policies and support (72) are all up from 2024. Employee perceptions of immediate supervisor remain high (77). Perceptions of bullying and harassment (9.5%) are down a percentage point from last year, even if they remain too high.
The commitment to service by APS employees remains very strong, with 93% of respondents agreeing they understand how their role contributes to achieving an outcome for the Australian public, and 91% agreeing they are happy to go the extra mile at work when required.
On the census question ‘The culture in my agency supports people to act with integrity’, 81% of respondents agreed with the statement, up from 77% in 2024.
The improvement in integrity has been underpinned by extensive work to strengthen an open speak-up culture in the public service. The APS has been assiduously learning the lessons from the failures in Robodebt, and has a strong focus on responsible and accountable leadership.
This same cultural shift has supported a lift in innovation, up 3 points on the Enabling Innovation Index to 68. The shift in public servants saying ‘my agency recognises and supports the notion that failure is a part of innovation is notable, increasing by 10 percentage points to 51%. While there is clearly still a way to go, more than 19,000 public servants changed their view about this aspect of risk over the past year.
While overall APS results are encouraging, significant variations occur at agency-level. We share agency-level results in the Agency Benchmarking section, and encourage agencies to reflect on their results in the context of other agencies of similar size. There is support available to assist agencies to address issues identified in the APS Employee Census.
I want to thank all APS employees for the work you do, the professionalism you bring to your roles, and the difference you make for Australians.
Thank you to all the teams and individuals across the APS who have contributed to this year’s State of the Service ꟷ the report is richer for it.
Dr Gordon de Brouwer