Half-yearly reporting: 1 July to 31 December 2025

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 the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet (PM&C) DLOs to portfolio ministers is updated twice a year.

Table 1: Allocation of PM&C DLOs as at 31 December 2025

Ministerial briefs

Departments and agencies routinely provide briefings to their ministers.

Table 2: Provision of submissions, briefs and correspondence provided to ministers by PM&C and its portfolio agencies in the 2025-26 financial year to 31 December 2025

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 of movements of new and/or ceased bodies, is available on the Australian Government Organisations Register.

Interdepartmental committees

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

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), while some are longer term (1-3 years). 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 2025, PM&C did not have any active taskforces.

Reviews

The department and its portfolio agencies are 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 from July to December 2025

Table 3: Total travel expenses (includes travel for staff, contractors, guests and other travellers)

Table 3a: Secretary travel (costs are included in Table 3: Total travel expenses)

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.

Table 3b: Deputy Secretary travel (costs are included in Table 3: Total travel expenses)

Table 3c: Previous incumbents

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 to 31 December 2025, 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.

Information about PM&C office spaces is published in PM&C’s Annual Report.

Table 4: Leased Office Space

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 twice a year, based on data as at the end of June and end of December, via the APS Employment Database (APSED).

As at 31 December 2025, PM&C had 160 active labour-hire contracts and during the 2025-26 financial year to 31 December 2025, extended 112 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 about the department’s organisation structure, including senior executive services officers (SES), is available at Our structure.

Table 5: Average staffing level (ASL) for the 2025-26 financial year to 31 December 2025

Recruitment activities

PM&C is committed to recruiting people with diverse experiences and from diverse backgrounds. From 1 July – 31 December 2025:

• PM&C externally advertised 23 non-SES and SES job advertisements to the general public through APSJobs. All of these ongoing roles were advertised as ongoing and non-ongoing.
• 38 ongoing positions and 5 non-ongoing position 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 93 days.

Of the 23 processes advertised, 21 processes have been completed and 1 process was cancelled. The average time to fill a position relates to the 21 completed processes only. The Graduate Program has been excluded, owing to its non-standard recruitment timelines. Recruitment activities for the Net Zero Economy Authority and the Defence and Veterans’ Services Commission are excluded from this data.

Fair Work Commission and Comcare claims

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.  

From 1 July to 31 December 2025:

• 0 claims were submitted to the Fair Work Commission
• 6 claims were submitted to Comcare

Advertising and information campaigns

In the 2025-26 financial year to 31 December 2025, PM&C:

• has not undertaken any information or advertising campaigns that meet the definition in the Australian Government Guidelines on Information and Advertising Campaigns by non-corporate Commonwealth entities.
• spent $44,700 (GST inclusive) on reportable non-campaign advertising for recruitment advertising for the position of Commissioner Defence and Veterans’ Services Commission.

Promotional merchandise

In the 2025-26 financial year to 31 December 2025, PM&C spent $2,043 (GST inclusive) on promotional merchandise for medallions for various events.

Media monitoring

PM&C has a contract for media monitoring with Streem Pty Ltd. The total expenditure under this contract for the 2025-26 financial year to 31 December 2025 was $311,379 (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 Authority
• Defence and Veterans’ Service Commission

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 2025-26 financial year to 31 December 2025, PM&C entered into 137 new reportable contracts with a total contract value of $35,141,434 (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 2025-26 financial year to 31 December 2025, PM&C awarded 15 new contracts to Indigenous businesses with a total value of $5,125,796 (GST inclusive). The PM&C portfolio has exceeded the Indigenous Procurement Policy volume and value targets for the 2025-26 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:

• Building construction and support and maintenance and repair services
• Components for information technology or broadcasting or telecommunications
• Computer equipment and accessories
• Education and training services
• Project administration or planning
• Software
• Software maintenance and support
• Temporary personnel services

Use of consultants

In the 2025-26 financial year to 31 December 2025, PM&C entered into 7 new reportable consultancy contracts with total expenditure of $431,050 (GST inclusive). In addition, PM&C had 2 ongoing reportable consultancy contracts that had expenditure activity during the period, with total expenditure of $2,024 (GST inclusive).

The categories of consultancy contracts included:

• Corporate objectives or policy development
• Environmental management
• Legal services
• Management advisory services
• Research programs

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.
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’.