Our operating environment
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The Queensland public sector workforce is dedicated to delivering services to Queenslanders.
Nine out of ten public service roles deliver services direct to the Queensland community – across hundreds of different roles including teachers, teacher aides, nurses, midwives, police officers, firefighters, scientists, registry officers and park rangers.
A smaller, but vitally important proportion of the workforce provide direct and indirect support to Queensland’s frontline in roles such as payroll officers, roster managers, human resource professionals, communication experts, information technology professionals, policy officers and program managers.
The work, performance and achievements of Queensland’s public sector workforce is impacted by environmental challenges as well as being underpinned by a legislative framework and strategy focus.
Each of these elements guide the way the sector workforce operates. This State of the sector report provides commentary and analysis on the performance of the sector given the environmental challenges, the legislative framework and the strategic focus.
Environmental challenges
As is the case across all Australian jurisdictions, Queensland’s public sector workforce operating environment is challenging, dynamic and subject to constant change.
As outlined in the Even better public sector for Queensland strategy 2024–2028 (Even better strategy), challenges include:
- the need for greater adaptability, collaboration, learning and innovating at speed to deal with unexpected or emerging issues and support the community to recover and thrive, with emerging challenges including increasingly severe impacts of climate change, increasing healthcare costs, social polarisation and declining trust in social institutions
- the need for public and private sector organisations to create cultures of continuous learning and upskilling in order to successfully respond to transformative new technologies and increased digital access
- responding to changes in the demographic profile of the workforce with an increasingly ageing population, a reduction in the proportion of working aged people and the varying expectations of different generations with respect to their employment and careers
- building trust within the community will require transparency, innovation, and community engagement through engagement with different community groups and demographic groups
- expectations around where, when and how people work are likely to be an ongoing disruption with the need to balance the benefits of flexibility with the challenges associated with equitable access for employees in frontline roles as well as the varying expectations of different generational groups.
To ensure the Queensland public sector is positioned to thrive in the context of these broader environmental challenges, the state operating environment is undergoing an exciting phase of change and renewal.
Public Sector Act 2022
The Public Sector Act 2022 (the Act) commenced on 1 March 2023. The Act provides a modern, employee-focused legislative framework to ensure Queensland’s public sector is fair, responsive, inclusive and a leader in public administration.
The Act has four priority areas:
- ensure the public sector is responsive to the community it serves
- create a public sector that supports the government’s focus to reframe its relationship with Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islander peoples
- create a public sector that ensures fairness in the employment relationship, and fair treatment of employees, including principles of of equity, diversity, respect and inclusion
- establish a high-performing, apolitical public sector by effective stewardship.
The Act provides a framework to guide the way in which the Queensland public sector should operate. It seeks to ensure the sector is fair and integrated, is equitable and inclusive and best placed to deliver to the people of Queensland.
This State of the sector report seeks to analyse how the sector is performing against the expectations outlined in the Act.
Office of the Special Commissioner, Equity and Diversity
In response to recommendations made in the Review of public sector employment laws–A fair and responsive public service for all, the Office of the Special Commissioner, Equity and Diversity (OSC) was established in 2021.
The OSC works to improve equity and diversity outcomes across public sector workplaces and delivers several key initiatives.
Data relating to themes such as access to flexible work, safety and wellbeing (including workplace sexual harassment), women in leadership, and inclusive recruitment and selection are detailed throughout this report.
Hear from Dr Linda Colley, Special Commissioner, Equity and Diversity about the sector’s performance.
Find out more about Our diversity.
Even better public sector for Queensland strategy
The Even better strategy and Even better public sector for Queensland Action Plan 2024 and 2025 (the action plan) builds on our strengths and recognises the value of an even better public sector.
This strategy focuses on six activity areas across — our work, our workforce and our workplace.
The six activity areas will help to drive impact by focusing on the key things critical to delivering better services and outcomes for Queenslanders:
- real collaboration and coordination across public sector organisations
- fit-for-purpose community engagement and communication
- skilled people working where they are needed most
- purpose-driven sector leadership
- inclusive workplaces that support flexible, productive and purposeful work
- tools and frameworks for making ethical decisions.
This report examines several core themes important to understanding progress towards achieving the outcomes outlined in the Even better strategy and action plan.
Topics such as collaboration, learning and development pathways, perceptions of leadership, and how we operate with integrity and serve the interest of all Queenslanders will be included throughout this report.
Other legislative materials/strategies and frameworks
In addition to the Act and the Even better strategy, a number of other legislative and strategic mechanisms are relevant to the Queensland public sector’s operating environment and which are related to or are referred to in this report: