Hundreds of jobs are set to be cut from the sprawling Department of Home Affairs – which handles visa processing and polices the nation’s border – as the Albanese government strives to squeeze savings from the public service in the May budget.
Home Affairs Secretary Stephanie Foster announced to staff in a briefing on Tuesday that calls had opened for voluntary redundancies across the department, including at Australian Border Force.
A spokesperson confirmed the department had “invited expressions of interest from eligible ongoing employees interested in a voluntary redundancy”.
While staff expect that hundreds of positions will be lost, the spokesperson said the department was not seeking to achieve a fixed number of redundancies.
The department has 15,925 staff, according to its most recent annual report.
Finance Minister Katy Gallagher’s department reportedly instructed cabinet ministers and public service bosses to find savings in their budgets of up to 5 per cent before the May budget, on top of the mandatory 1 per cent annual budget reduction imposed on public sector agencies.
The Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, the Australian Bureau of Statistics and the Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water have all opened voluntary redundancy rounds this year.
Cuts at the Department of Home Affairs – which oversees immigration, border security and counter-terrorism – are more likely to affect frontline roles and prove politically contentious.
Home Affairs Minister Tony Burke’s office was contacted for comment.
The Australian Federal Police and domestic spy agency ASIO are not included in the redundancy round.
Opposition home affairs spokesman Jonno Duniam said: “The government must come clean about exactly what job cuts are being proposed at Home Affairs and whether frontline staff responsible for protecting our borders will be affected.
“As the Coalition has repeatedly pointed out, we don’t have enough frontline staff now. Any cuts will make this issue far worse.”
Sam McCrone, an official at the Community and Public Sector Union, said: “We are set to lose hundreds of trusted [Australian Public Service] staff under the guise of budget savings.”
McCrone said the lack of detail provided to Home Affairs staff was heaping anxiety on “an already overworked, underpaid and under-resourced department”.
“This workforce is vital in keeping Australian borders safe, processing passports and making sure we are getting through our airports quickly,” he said.
“Workers are already reporting significant workload pressures – these job cuts risk exacerbating these issues and undermining service delivery.”
Gallagher has previously said government departments were being encouraged to examine their “lowest-priority 5 per cent” of spending.
“There’s been no instruction to cut budgets by 5 per cent. This is not an exercise in job cuts. This is an exercise in fiscal discipline,” she said last year.
Matthew Knott is the foreign affairs and national security correspondent for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X, Facebook or email.