Bob Carr (NSW, Australian Labor Party, Minister for Foreign Affairs) Share this | Hansard source

The Minister for Defence has provided the following answer to the honourable senator's question:

The workforce data detailed in the White Paper and the Strategic Reform Program 'Indicative Workforce Implications' are based on approved allocations at the time of publication and reflect full-time equivalent average numbers for each financial year.

On 30 July 2008 Defence (including DMO) employed 20,439 full-time equivalent Australian Public Service (APS) personnel and approximately 704 contractors (noting that contractor reporting mechanisms were not mature in July 2008). As at 30 June 2012, Defence (including DMO) was employing 22,284 full-time equivalent APS personnel and 493 contractors.

This represents an increase in APS personnel of +1,845 (+9.0%), and a reduction in contractors of approximately -211 (-30.0%) since 1 July 2008. Of these overall changes, the APS increase in Defence was +1,153 (+7.7%) while in DMO it was +692 (+12.7%). The number of contractors in Defence decreased by -48 (-9.6%) while in DMO they decreased by -163 (-79.1%).