Defence External Workforce Census
Defence conducts a bi-annual mandatory External Workforce Census (Census) of
Consultants, Contractors and Outsourced Service Providers (OSPs). The Census is an
opportunity for Defence to collate a reasonable estimate of the resources engaged through
external service providers to support delivery of Defence outcomes.
Contractors, Consultants and OSPs are not given a position or job title. Additionally, this
level of information is not captured as part of the Census. The most recent Census was
conducted in March 2020.
Primary Activities
Contractor
Consultant
OSP
Total
Platform or Fleet Sustainment and Maintenance
1,150
10
6,907
8,067
Property
29
9
5,752
5,790
Information Technology
1,186
19
2,660
3,865
Other
900
65
2,700
3,665
Project Management
2,311
73
729
3,113
Education & Training
343
4
991
1,338
Health Services
1
0
1,189
1,190
Administration
407
40
526
972
Legal
30
2
140
173
Procurement
87
1
64
152
Finance
64
-
65
129
Communications and Media
28
25
70
122
HR Research and Services
31
7
19
56
Total
6,567
255
21,811
28,632
The definitions for Contractor, Consultant and OSPs are as follows:
Consultant: Consultants are individuals, partnerships or corporations engaged to provide
professional, independent and expert advice or services. It involves the engagement of expert
professional skills to investigate or diagnose a defined issue or problem, to carry out defined
research, reviews or evaluations or provide independent advice, information or creative
solutions to assist in management decision making. Performance of the services is at the
discretion and professional expertise of the consultant, with Defence providing oversight. The
consultant’s output reflects the independent views or findings of the individual or organisation
and generally belongs to Defence.
Contractor: A person engaged by Defence under a contract for skills that would normally be
maintained in the Australian Public Service (APS) or Australian Defence Force (ADF)
workforce. The person is engaged to perform day-to-day duties of Defence. The person works
largely under the supervision of an APS employee or ADF member. Defence specifies how
the work is to be undertaken. The resulting output is produced on behalf of Defence and is
generally regarded as a Defence product. The person’s remuneration is based on the time
worked, usually calculated on an hourly or daily rate. Defence generally provides the
necessary equipment and supplies.
2
Outsourced Service Providers: Defence has made a decision that the function is to be
performed by an external service provider on a long term or permanent basis. It involves skills
or expertise that are not required to be maintained by APS or ADF in Defence. Performance
of the services is left largely up to the discretion and professional expertise of the provider.
Typically, service standards or performance indicators are agreed as part of the contracting
process and monitored periodically. The resulting output is produced for Defence as a
customer. Remuneration is paid when milestones are reached or a task is completed, or
periodically for the provision of ongoing services such as maintenance, cleaning or travel
bookings. The provider generally supplies their own equipment and supplies.
Below are the definitions that are used for classifying resources into activities.
Primary Activity
Example(s)
Administration
Management services, recruitment support, temp labour hire
support, HR support services, WHS/OHS reviewers, commercial
(other than legal), corporate performance
Communications and
Strategic communications, media services, publishing, content
Media
management and development
Education & Training Safety training, systems training, development and delivery of
training material
Platform or Fleet
Sustainment, engineering support, capability support, materiel
Sustainment and
maintenance services, operational maintenance
Maintenance
Finance
Costings, business case support and development, cost analysis,
cost modelling
Health Services
Services to enable health service delivery and health business
HR Research and
HR Services and HR Research
Services
Information
Infrastructure support, business analysis, technical support,
Technology
solutions architecture, helpdesk
Legal
Professional legal fees, legal support, procurement probity
Other
Contracts that cannot be categorised elsewhere
Procurement
Commercial assurance, procurement support, vendor viability
assessments
Project Management
Project manager services, program management
Property
Lease management, design services, base services, security
services
