The Albanese government is allowing just a month to make six major changes across federal departments. 

From July 1, the government wants a new department of employment and workplace relations to be formed, as well as a new department of climate change, energy, the environment and water.

Public policy expert Professor John Wanna says that the machinery of government (MOG) announcement will cause shockwaves. 

He says that in a bureaucratic environment where it can take up to 12 months to develop a new letterhead design, change is not easy.

“Changing the public service and moving parts of the bureaucracy around is extremely disruptive,” Dr Wanna says.

“Some of these things are much more problematic than just changing pieces of paper.”

He used the establishment of Australia’s first climate change department in 2008 under PM Kevin Rudd as an example, saying it took painfully slow steps to merge the different parts of what would become that new government entity. 

It took the APS over a week just to hold a meeting with representatives from across those four government groups, and even longer to establish IT infrastructure to accommodate internal communications between the branches. 

Dr Wanna said the new Labor government’s MOG directive does not include the transformation that the commonwealth portfolios need.

“Labor had an opportunity to clarify the departments with the ministers — they still mixed it up,” Dr Wanna said. 

“Water as a policy area has probably been in about nine agencies in the last 10 years. It’s been in agriculture and infrastructure, it’s been in this, that, and the other.

“Arts is another one. It’s all over the place.

“We’ve got a minister for the republic and we don’t even have a republic.”

As well as two new departments - the employment and workplace relations department and climate change, energy, environment and water department - some will be renamed, with the Department of Health now being known as the Department of Health and Aged Care.

The Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications has changed its name to the Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts.