Australia’s Public Sector Is Far Smaller Than Debates Suggest

By Osmond Chiu, Research Fellow Over the past year, a chart by The Economist from April 2025 has gone viral – circulating heavily on LinkedIn and cited by conservative thinktanks and parliamentarians to argue that Australia has a “bloated” government. The chart claims that, adjusted for population, Australia has 143 public sector employees per 1,000 … Continue reading Australia’s Public Sector Is Far Smaller Than Debates Suggest