Last week's Senate estimates hearings revealed thousands of expressions of interest for voluntary redundancies across multiple departments, the referral of a media leak by the Australian Federal Police, and a previously undisclosed investigation into the outgoing anti-corruption chief.
As major departments, including Treasury, Defence and the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade prepare to front the final round of hearings this week before the winter break, here are all the revelations you may have missed.
Thousands of senior public servants have expressed interest in voluntary redundancies as part of a sweeping savings drive across the public service.
Home Affairs secretary Stephanie Foster revealed 2000 department staff have put their hands up for a voluntary redundancy since April.
Ms Foster said hundreds of public servants were expected to exit the department but did not say how many applications would be approved.
She also said redundancies were being offered to staff from all areas of the 15,000-strong department, including Australian Border Force, with final decisions expected to be made by the end of June.
"We will be making very conscious, deliberate decisions about what's in the organisation's interests and how, with the reduced staffing, we deliver on the government's highest priorities," Ms Foster told a hearing last Wednesday.
In a separate hearing, National Indigenous Australians Agency chief operating officer Rachael Jackson said around 120 executive-level staff had expressed interest in taking voluntary redundancy since a round opened in March.
Meanwhile, Mike Kaiser, the secretary of the Department of Energy and Climate Change, said roughly 230 staff have applied for a voluntary redundancy since expressions of interest opened earlier this year.
Mr Kaiser also tabled emails to the environment and communications committee showing he had previously notified staff that the department had decided "very reluctantly" to pause all new recruitment.
"What we've done is we've tried to more carefully control our recruitment activity by escalating the levels within the department at which hiring can be approved," he told the committee.
The acting Australian Public Service Commissioner, Subho Banerjee, said the public service commission had offered 33 redundancies as of May 13.
"We have been conscious for some time of fiscal constraints on the APSC and have been going through a realignment process for some time," he said.
Auditor-General Caralee McLeish revealed the audit office requested a $10 million annual funding injection in the recent budget to help it deal with "critical cost pressures."
Dr McLeish said the Australian National Audit Office will deliver a "historically low" number of performance audits in 2026-27 due to funding constraints.
"The ANAO has been running losses for at least the last five years of around $5 million per year," she told senators last week.
"That has been supported through the use of accumulated reserves. We have come to a point where those reserves now need to be used for employee liabilities."
The ANAO's average staffing level dropped from 435 in 2025-26 to 421 in 2026-27, according to the budget papers.
Dr McLeish said the agency's costs had risen higher than what the government had budgeted for, placing a further planned 38 audits "at risk."
"This year, our audit work program included 83 topics, and we're going to do between 38 to 42," she said.
"Next year, I'm looking to increase that number, because I have a multi-year program, and we'll be able to undertake only a fraction of what we publish in our annual audit work program."
The AFP used hearings to defend the high-profile arrest of alleged war criminal Ben Roberts-Smith against the backdrop of active criminal proceedings against the 47-year-old.
In an opening statement, AFP Commissioner Krissy Barrett said investigators were aware of Mr Roberts-Smith's plans to relocate overseas, which informed a decision to arrest him on April 7.
Appearing at a late-night hearing, Ms Barrett also defended the decision to arrest the former SAS soldier while he was travelling with his family at Sydney Domestic Airport.
"A decision was made to arrest the individual at Sydney domestic airport for a number of operational reasons, including airports are sterile environments, meaning people are screened, plus the area is contained, meaning it is safer to take action for our members," she said.
Commissioner Barrett also said she was "disappointed" that details of the arrest had been leaked to the media and was determined to find the person responsible.
"Anyone who disclosed that information should face consequences," she said.
Earlier in the week, it emerged that the AFP and the Office of the Special Investigator referred the matter to the National Anti-Corruption Commission to investigate.
Home Affairs was named the worst offender in the entire public service for failing to meet statutory timelines for freedom-of-information requests.
In response to questions from Greens senator David Shoebridge, the Office of the Australian Information Commission revealed the worst offenders when it comes to processing times.
"The three most significant offenders sit in the Home Affairs, National Disability Insurance Agency [and] Department of Veterans' Affairs," FOI Commissioner Alice Linacre said.
"Services Australia and AFP are in that top bundle too."
Australian Information Commissioner Elizabeth Tydd said FOI complaints had increased by 52 per cent in the first three quarters of this financial year, compared to the same period last year.
Last Tuesday's hearings heard the outgoing National Anti-Corruption Commissioner, Paul Brereton, vehemently defend his record after he resigned three years into his five-year term, citing "distraction" from ongoing scrutiny of his defence work.
Mr Brereton resigned last Monday after facing several months of criticism over his "occasional" undisclosed consulting for Defence.
It was later revealed during estimates hearings that a draft copy of an investigation into his consulting work had been handed back to the commission weeks prior.
NACC Inspector Gail Furness also disclosed that an unrelated complaint against Mr Brereton was under investigation.
"There are two complaint investigations I have underway that are not related," she told senators.
"The one I just referred to is not one that I have referred to before."
Ms Furness confirmed she launched the investigation on April 14 but declined to disclose the nature of the complaint.
