Thousands of bureaucrats are being urgently redeployed in a massive organisational shift.

Almost 2,000 public servants have volunteered to help Services Australia cope with an enormous surge in inquiries about COVID-19 emergency measures.

Additionally, around 1,000 Australian Taxation Office staff have reportedly been moved over from debt collecting and lodgement functions to help handle the ATO’s massive increase in phone inquiries.

A new taskforce has been created to manage the APS workforce and mobilise staff.

Officials say they will be able to meet the massively increased public need by bringing in volunteers, moving around people on temporary employment registers and drawing from labour hire companies.

Reports say the taskforce coordinating APS movements is considering having those public servants who volunteer for redeployment rotated through different postings every two to three weeks.

However, redeployed staff will remain attached to their parent agency.

“We are witnessing a major change in our operating model and a huge sense of public service on display,” public service commissioner Peter Woolcott said this week.