Three federal departments spent $100m on redundancy payouts in one year
Three federal departments paid about $100 million in redundancy costs in 2025-26. Home Affairs cut contractor costs, but Education increased them.
Home Affairs led a redundancy surge, paying about $74.9 million to staff taking voluntary exit packages in 2025-26. The surge represented a tenfold jump from the year before.
The department processed 679 departures. More than half of its highly paid staff got termination payments.
Education department paid $13 million and Agriculture paid $11.4 million on redundancies. Home Affairs actually reduced contractor spending slightly, to $321.2 million.
Education cut permanent staff. But the department increased labour hire costs by about 28 per cent, from $11 million to $14.1 million.
The union movement criticised the pattern as wasteful. Permanent workers get pushed out.
Agencies keep hiring temporary contractors.
- $99.3 million
- Combined redundancy payout
- Nearly tenfold from prior year
- Home Affairs increase factor
- 679 people
- Home Affairs departures
- 28 per cent rise
- Education labour hire increase
Why it mattersTaxpayers fund both the redundancy payouts and higher contractor costs. This raises questions about whether the government spends money wisely on the workforce.
AustraliaThe redundancies affect how federal services operate across Australia, from Home Affairs visa processing to Education policy work, and signal broader restructuring across the Australian Public Service.
✓ Claims checked against the source and corrected before publish. checked 1 h ago
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