ABSTRACT
In the mid 1990s, the civil service in Australia, the Australian Public Sector (APS) was made up of some 100 separate agencies and it employed around 130,000 people. These agencies which comprised both departments of state and statutory bodies varied substantially in size, with the four largest Departments (Social Security; Defence; Employment and Education and Training and Youth Affairs) and the Australian Tax Office accounting for over half of all APS employment.
