The Australian public service is often taken for granted by both politicians and the public alike and the Coalition’s plans to reduce it’s number by 12,000 is just one example.

Our recent research released in The State of the Public Service: An Alternative Report queries many of the accepted perceptions of the public service and finds that rather than being the bloated inefficient bureaucracy it is sometimes depicted to be, Australians are overall satisfied with the job it’s doing.

“Far from being “bloated”, public service numbers are actually lagging behind when compared with population growth… public servants were vulnerable to attack because much of their work was taken for granted.”

An article in The Canberra Times picks up our report’s findings, read it here