Half-yearly reporting: 1 July to 31 December 2024

Working with Ministerial Offices

Departmental Liaison Officers 

A Departmental Liaison Officer (DLO) is a public servant who is temporarily placed in a Minister's office to act as a conduit between their Department and the Minister's office.

Information on the allocation of Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) DLOs to Portfolio Ministers is provided below. This information is updated twice a year. 

Correct as of: 31 December 2024

Ministerial briefs

Departments and agencies routinely provide briefings to their Ministers. 

Statistics for the provision of submissions, briefs and correspondence provided to Ministers by PM&C and its portfolio agencies in the 2024-25 financial year to 31 December 2024 are provided below. 

Portfolio entities, Interdepartmental Committees, Taskforces and Reviews

The Australian Government Organisations Register (AGOR) provides information on the function, composition, origins and other details of Australian Government bodies.

There are 12 main types of bodies reported in the AGOR. PM&C is responsible for collecting information about the Prime Minister and Cabinet portfolio entities and bodies listed, with the exception of the Indigenous Portfolio Agencies which are managed by the National Indigenous Australians Agency.

Quarterly reporting, in the form of the AGOR Dashboard and a register movements of new and/or ceased bodies, is available on the AGOR website.

An Interdepartmental Committee (IDC) is a common governance body for cross-agency taskforces, where officials from representative agencies may discuss work and provide input on deliverables. 

PM&C and its portfolio agencies are regularly involved in the work of IDCs.

By their nature, IDCs can be established and conclude their work rapidly as the need arises. 

Taskforces have become a dynamic method of doing business across the APS, and are regularly established within PM&C to meet emerging or high-profile government priorities. Some are short term (3-6 months), some longer (1-3 years), but all require dedicated focus, varying timescales, set-up and delivery resourcing and effort from many parts of PM&C and more broadly across the APS. 

PM&C and its portfolio agencies are regularly involved in the work of a range of taskforces.

As at 31 December 2024, PM&C hosts the:

• Jenkins’ Report Implementation Team*
• Insurance Affordability and Natural Hazard Risk Reduction Taskforce
• Delivery of the Legislation Taskforce
• Royal Commission into Defence and Veterans’ Suicide Implementation Taskforce

*Taskforce closed on 31 December 2024.

The Department and its portfolio agencies are also involved in reviews. The outcome of reviews are typically announced by portfolio ministers. 

Operational matters

Travel

PM&C’s Official Travel Policy provides the overarching rules and principles for officials undertaking official travel, or organising official travel for others, including: 

• Officials should ensure maximum value for money is achieved when booking travel. Value for money requires the use of Commonwealth resources in a proper (efficient, effective, economical and ethical) manner, and is enhanced through competition.
• When booking travel, officials must make decisions based on an impartial consideration of the fares available and not on a personal preference for a particular airline or aircraft type, provision of access to airline lounges or accumulating airline status points.
• Official travel should only be undertaken where other communication tools, such as teleconferencing and videoconferencing, are an impractical option.

PM&C official departmental travel statistics from July to December 2024 are outlined below.

Travel Expenses (including travel for staff, contractors, guests and other travellers):¹

Secretary and Deputy Secretaries travel (included in total above)*

The Secretary’s travel is undertaken in accordance with the Remuneration Tribunal (Official Travel) Determination, which sets out the provisions that apply when the Secretary is required to travel for official business away from Canberra.

Deputy Secretary⁴

Facilities

Upgrades to PM&C’s staff amenities are managed in accordance with Commonwealth guidelines and policies, including the Commonwealth Procurement Rules. In the period 1 July-31 Dec 2024, PM&C has not upgraded any of its staff amenities. PM&C’s procurement contracts with a maximum contract value of $10,000 (GST inclusive) and above are reported on AusTender, available at www.austender.gov.au. 

Information regarding the PM&C office spaces are outlined in PM&C’s Annual Report* on page 151 of the 2023-24 Annual Report. 

Leased Office Space

*Lease for Level 2, 10 National Circuit ceased 31 July 2024

Our People

At PM&C we continue to invest in our people’s capability and grow the diversity of our workforce to support the Government to deliver outcomes for all Australians. 

PM&C’s employee data is reported on biannually, based on data as at the end of June and end of December, via the APS Employment Database (APSED). 

As at 31 December 2024, PM&C had 209 labour-hire contractors working in the department and during the 2024-25 financial year to 31 December 2024, extended 21 labour-hire contracts. 

Contractor hours and work patterns are managed locally between contractors and their PM&C managers and administered through the contractor’s labour hire company. Hour and work pattern data is held by the labour hire company. Contractors are engaged through procurement processes.

Information regarding the department’s organisation structure, including Senior Executive Services Officers, is available at Our structure. 

Average Staffing Level (ASL) for the 2024-25 Financial Year:

Recruitment Activities

PM&C is committed to recruiting people with diverse experiences and from diverse backgrounds. In the 2024-25 financial year to 31 December 2024:

• PM&C externally advertised 69*ongoing SES and non-SES job advertisements to the general public through APSJobs. Most of these ongoing roles were also advertised as non-ongoing.
• 85 ongoing positions and 2 non-ongoing positions were filled as a result of these processes, noting single advertisements can result in multiple positions being filled.
• The average time to fill a position (from approval to advertise to commencement) was 94 days.

*Of the 69 processes advertised, 53 processes have been completed. The average time to fill a position relates to the 53 completed processes only.

PM&C is committed to promoting and sustaining a robust safety and wellbeing culture – valuing physical and psychological health, safety and wellbeing and promoting inclusivity.  

In the 2024-25 financial year to 31 December 2024:

• 2 claims were referred to Fair Work Commission
• 1 claim was referred to Comcare 

Advertising and information campaigns 

In the 2024-25 financial year to 31 December 2024, PM&C: 

• conducted an advertising campaign for the New Zero Economic Transformation that meet the definition in the Australian Government Guidelines on Information and Advertising Campaigns by non-corporate Commonwealth entities.
• spent $2,787,811 (GST inclusive) on reportable contracts with advertising agencies, market research organisations and media advertising organisations for the Net Zero Economic Transformation campaign including:
  • $1,737,471 for advertising services
  • $1,050,340 for public relations, communications, and marketing services.
• spent $174,314 (GST inclusive) on reportable contracts with advertising agencies, market research organisations and media advertising organisations for non-campaign advertising and market research including:
  • $74,008 for market research services to inform and support the development of public policy
  • $60,535 for recruitment advertising for the 2026 graduate program
  • $27,500 for digital media services to promote engagement with a public survey to inform the Long-term Insights Briefing on the future of human services delivery
  • $12,271 for recruitment advertising for Commissioners for the Independent Parliamentary Standards Commission.

Promotional Merchandise

In the 2024-25 financial year to 31 December 2024, PM&C spent $1,379 (GST inclusive) on promotional merchandise for PM&C medallions for security related events. 

Media monitoring

PM&C has a contract for media monitoring with Streem Pty Ltd. The total expenditure under this contract for the 2024-25 financial year to 31 December 2024 was $227,700 (GST inclusive).

The following PM&C portfolio entities access services under this contract through a shared services arrangement:

• National Indigenous Australians Agency
• Workplace Gender Equality Agency
• Australian Public Service Commission
• Net Zero Economy Agency (Net Zero Economy Authority from 11 December 2024)

Procurement Activities (including Indigenous Procurement Policy)

PM&C’s approach to procuring goods and services, including consultancies, is undertaken in accordance with the Public Governance Performance and Accountability Act 2013 and the Commonwealth Procurement Rules.

In the 2024-25 financial year to 31 December 2024, PM&C entered into 297 new reportable contracts with a total value of $70,448,503 (GST inclusive). The department’s procurement contracts with a maximum contract value of $10,000 (GST inclusive) and above are reported on AusTender. 

In the 2024-25 financial year to 31 December 2024, PM&C awarded 6 reportable contracts to Indigenous businesses with a total value of $2,118,986 (GST inclusive). The PM&C portfolio is exceeding the Indigenous Procurement Policy volume and value targets for the 2024-25 financial year.

The categories of procurement contracts awarded to Indigenous businesses registered or certified with Supply Nation and/or the Office of the Registrar of Indigenous Corporations include:

• Graphic design
• Temporary personnel services

Use of Consultants

In the 2024-25 financial year to 31 December 2024, PM&C entered into 13 new reportable consultancy contracts with total actual expenditure of $907,808 (GST inclusive). In addition, PM&C had 11 ongoing reportable consultancy contracts, with total actual expenditure of $555,155 (GST inclusive). 

The categories of consultancy contracts included: 

• Building construction and support and maintenance and repair services
• Corporate objectives or policy development
• Economic analysis
• Environmental management
• Information technology consultation services
• Legal services
• Management advisory services
• Organisational structure consultation
• Professional engineering services
• Research programs
• Strategic planning consultation services 

Details about PM&C’s consultancy contracts with a maximum contract value of $10,000 (GST inclusive) and above are reported on AusTender. 

Freedom of Information (FOI) requests

Agencies subject to the Freedom of Information Act 1982 must provide quarterly and annual statistical returns to the Office of the Australian Information Commissioner (OAIC). Freedom of Information (FOI) statistics are published by the OAIC on a quarterly basis on their website at the Australian Government FOI Statistics dashboard.

^[1] Data is provided by the Whole of Government contract provider and at the time of publication may not include adjustments to trips (amended travel dates, late cancellations, unprocessed refunds etc.) in this reporting period.

^[2] Total cost includes all travel related expenditure for the department, exclusive of GST, including booking fees.

^[3] Costs include GST, where incurred.

^[4] Deputy Secretary positions reflect titles and occupants outlined on the PM&C organisation chart at the time of reporting. Trips undertaken by previous incumbents including acting in Deputy Secretary positions on higher duties are included under ‘previous incumbents’.

^[5] Current CEO travel prior to establishment of the Net Zero Economy Authority.