Services Australia says its IT contractor cull covers “around 1,245” people. 

Services Australia has revised the number of IT contractors let go at the end of last year, after stating “up to 1,000 ICT contractors” were impacted last November. 

At a recent senate estimates hearing, it clarified that 1,000 would be the number of “full-time equivalents to a public servant”, meaning the actual headcount reduction of contractors was higher, at “around 1,245”, chief information and digital officer Charles McHardie said.

But Mr McHardie said “there’s no plan to let any further contractors go this year”.

He said the agency is now using an “integrated work plan” to resource planned works through to “the end of the year”.

“These are what we call registered projects, mainly to assist government with legislative change,” he said.

“We’ve got two major software releases coming up, one in March and then we also have one before the end of the financial year, so we’ve got a workforce that’s ready to deliver on all of those projects.”

But contractors will continue to work on myGov and to “assist [with] the stability and security of our systems as well”. 

Mr McHardie said the ratio of public servants to contractors at Services Australia is now 67/33, down from a high of 52/48.