The education department's voluntary redundancies nearly tripled in the last year, with staff exits rising to 92 departures compared to 34 the previous financial year.
A collation of departmental data reveals the scale and cost of the staff departures in 2025-26, as federal agencies shed staff to cope with tightening operational budgets.
The department finalised those 92 departures as of late June 2026, though the final financial bill for the increase was not yet settled at the close of the reporting period due to continuing separations.
The agency paid out $4.72 million for its 34 redundancies in 2024-25, and $2.85 million for the 17 processed in 2023-24.
The increase in exits followed revelations during Senate Estimates in May-June that the department had already paid $520,000 to four staff members whose separations were finalised earlier in the financial year.
The largest volume of these exits occurred in the social services department, which confirmed 302 voluntary redundancies in 2025-26.
Although the final cost would be detailed in its coming annual financial report, officials previously told Senate estimates that the total payout figure was expected to reach about $20 million.
As strict internal savings targets coincided with a reallocation of budgeted staffing levels, departments said staff exits were a workforce lever to manage their appropriations and redirect resources ahead of the 2026-27 financial year.
At Services Australia, 25 staff members accepted voluntary redundancies in the 11 months to May 31, 2026.
Those payouts cost the agency $2.59 million as part of a $3.56 million total separation bill, after the previous financial year when five people left under similar arrangements following the 33 in 2023-24.
Other parts of the bureaucracy recorded fewer departures.
The finance department processed five redundancies, costing about $667,000, and the infrastructure department managed a localised approach that meant seven staff stepped down by March.
The health department recorded a minor decrease, processing nine separation packages compared to 10 the previous year and 13 in 2023-24.
The redundancies and payouts occurred despite the average staffing level across the public service increasing by 3900 primarily due to a large recruitment push within Defence for the AUKUS program.
In May 2026, Finance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher said department heads were responsible for budget management to align with government objectives.
Senator Gallagher said a portion of the staffing adjustments was due to the natural expiry of time-limited initiatives that had reached the end of their allocated funding cycles.
The structural impact of the job cuts also faced resistance from the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU).
CPSU national secretary Melissa Donnelly said reducing permanent front-line staff at a time when service demands and workloads remained steady ran counter to government promises.
Ms Donnelly said external contracting and consultancy bills across the federal government remained high, saying that taxpayers continued to subsidise expensive third-party arrangements and core public-sector capability was actively diminished.
