One in 10 public servants report bullying or harassment in the past year

Tuesday, 8 July 2025

Of the staff that were involved in preparing advice for a minister, only 71% of them said they were confident their organisation was free and frank in its advice to ministers.

More than 1 in 10 public servants have experienced bullying or harassment in the last year, the second Public Service Census has suggested.

It found 12.1% of public servants who responded to the survey said they had experienced bullying or harassment in their current workplace in the last 12 months - compared internationally with 11% in Australia and 8% in the UK.

Overall, 9.2% said they had been bullied - that included interference with work tasks (eg. withholding needed information, undermining or sabotage), verbal abuse and deliberately being excluded from work activities.

About 1% reported harassment - 0.8% was sexual harassment and 1.6% was racial harassment. Almost 2% said they had experienced hostility or ridicule because of their race, colour or ethnic group.

Of those who had reported experiencing bullying and harassment, only 52% reported the behaviour.

Reasons given for not reporting was they did not think action would be taken (52%), worry about possible retaliation or reprisals (48%) and it could affect their career (44%).

This year’s census was held between March 3-21 across 40 agencies, with 44,737 people taking part which is 68.5% of staff working in departments and departmental agencies.

Three quarters of those surveyed thought inefficient decision making was a problem in the public service, 73% thought there was complicated or unnecessary business processes and 82% believed high work volumes and insufficient staff were hindering high performance.

Of the 23% of staff involved in preparing advice for a minister, 71% of them said they were confident their organisation was free and frank in its advice to ministers.

Of all the public servants, only 44% were confident that people in their organisation got jobs based on merit.

Seventy per cent agreed or strongly agreed that they felt safe to speak up about wrongdoing or inappropriate behaviour in the workplace.

The Public Service Census was first run in 2021 and was planned for every three years, but the change of government in 2023 meant the second census was postponed by the Public Service Commission for a year.