“The first to speak in court sounds right—until the cross-examination begins” (Proverbs 18:17)
When my daughter started at the National Art School, I bought her a subscription to The Economist to give her a different perspective that she would get within that sandstone institution.
But one stat from that stats-laden magazine is responsible for some strong claims about Australia that need further examination.
Citing the ILO (the United Nations agency the International Labour Organisation,
John Anderson’s Interviewee, financial industry executive and consultant Mike Newman tells the former deputy PM, “Australia now is ranked number one in terms of bureaucrats per head of population number one in the world. Number one in the world. The federal public service has expanded by 135,000 people to 3 85. That’s a 54% increase in the number of bureaucrats at the federal level since we have a reverse democracy now, we’re unelected bureaucrats, a running the show, and ministers are invariably just conduits to push through the legislation.”
The first number comes from The Economist, reporting stats from the United Nations’ agency, the International Labour Organisation and the World Bank.
The second from a Novemnber 2025 report from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, which reported
“There were 2,597,300 public sector employee jobs in the month of June 2025, comprising:
• 218,000 in Local government.
• 385,900 employee jobs in Commonwealth government (including defence force personnel);
• 1,993,400 in State government, and
• 218,000 in Local government.
“Total public sector employee jobs increased 3.3% between June 2024 and June 2025.”
Newman goes on to discuss issues such as the growth in the public sector and high wages for some leaders.
Maybe you have spotted that there might be a discrepancy between Newman’s two sets of stats.
If Australia really had 143 public sector workers per 1000 people, like the economist chart shows,with our population of 27.2 million people, we’d have 3.88m public servants.
But Newman cites the ABS stats that show a figure of 2,597,300.
So his claim that Australia leads the world in “bloated bureacracy” is suspect.
Osmond Chiu, Research Fellow at Per Capita, an independent public policy think tank, usefully explains the discrepancy.
“The issue lies in the definition used by ILO, which was not properly explained in The Economist’s chart. The ILO defines the public sector as:
- All government institutions
- State-owned enterprises (50%+ government ownership)
- Government-controlled non-profit institutions.
“The ILO states it may be difficult to accurately capture public sector employment for persons in non-profit institutions controlled and/or mainly financed by governments. It will depend on the individual’s perception of the institutional affiliation or nature of their work.”
This means that private school teachers, bulk billed doctors, and welfare workers for denominational and other charities and the NDIS are all included.
Chiu points to a graph from the OECD (The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development) that aligns with the ABS figures.
“The OECD data aligns with domestic data on the public sector workforce,” Chiu wrote. The most recent Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) data (June 2025) puts Australia’s entire public sector workforce at 2,597,300, out of a total labour force of 14,637,800 or just 17.7% of the workforce.”
The OECD figures have Australia at about half way up the ranking of OECD member country economies for public sector size.
Some readers may think that is too big, others too small. But that’s where the size of our public service actually sits.
THANK YOU John!