Human Services rebrand as part of Scott Morrison's 2019 administrative orders
The federal government's largest department will rebrand for the first time in its 15-year life as newly sworn Prime Minister Scott Morrison puts it at the centre of plans to overhaul the bureaucracy's dealings with the public.
Services Australia is the new name for the 30,000-strong Human Services Department as Mr Morrison puts it in charge of whole-of-government service delivery, a role he has shifted from his own portfolio.
Federal government IT will also move into the mega-department's ambit in a signal the Coalition will rethink its troubled roll-out of new technology in delivering services.
Prime Minister Scott Morrison with his new cabinet on Wednesday. Picture: Alex Ellinghausen.
The Coalition revealed its restructure of the Australian Public Service, after Mr Morrison named his new ministry and flagged he would reposition the Human Services Department's role inside the government.
Human Services is rebranding for the first time since the department's creation under the Howard government in 2004.
Mr Morrison's focus on the agency after his re-election could bring the largest overhaul of its work since the Gillard government brought Medicare and Centrelink into its tent in 2011.
Services Australia will retain responsibility for the two programs as it continues to design, deliver, and coordinate the nation's social security net.
However, Mr Morrison is charging the department, involved in some of the Coalition's most controversial IT and service delivery reforms during the previous term of government, with leading an overhaul of its dealings with the public.
The Prime Minister has also drawn the department closer to his watch by appointing himself Public Service Minister and handing the ministry overseeing Services Australia - to be modelled on Services NSW - to his ally Stuart Robert.
Community and Public Sector Union national secretary Nadine Flood called on Mr Morrison to improve government services by rethinking its cap on staffing, among other policies.
"Their average staffing level cap has forced agencies into reliance on contractors and consultants at great expense, and driven growth of insecure, low wage labour hire jobs, because agencies are barred by government from hiring the skilled staff they need," she said.
"If agencies could hire more expert staff, and offer certainty to the staff they currently have on insecure labour hire contracts, the ability of our agencies to deliver government services would improve."
Departments had tried delivering complex services on outdated technology with shrinking staff numbers, with serious consequences for the public and for the union's members, Ms Flood said.
"We can't build the right technology or make the complex changes to deliver high quality, integrated government services if we can't hire the right people to do it - and hire them into secure jobs so they have a reason to stay."
Another of the government's major employers, the Home Affairs Department, will expand its footprint again as it takes on migrant services from the Social Services and the Education departments.
The Coalition's changes to the bureaucracy appear to have narrowed the focus of the Social Services Department, which is handing responsibility for housing affordability to Treasury.
The Jobs and Small Business Department, replacing the Employment Department in 2017, will undergo another name change as it becomes the Department of Employment, Skills, Small and Family Business.
Mr Morrison began his new term of government on Sunday calling for "congestion busting" to end bureaucratic bottlenecks, and make government "easier" for Australians.
He said he wanted people to have access to services in a more timely and efficient way, making better use of technology and better integrating service delivery across portfolios.
"There are services they rely on and we want them to access those services, as easily as they can and in as informed a way as possible," Mr Morrison said.
Mr Robert's office was contacted for comment.