Department of Veterans' Affairs
Department of Veterans' Affairs
Veterans' Affairs (part of the Defence Portfolio) portfolio
Verified figures
- Contracts (all years): 15,875
- Contract value (all years): 7,951,425,700 AUD
- Contract value (2026): 186,297,411 AUD
- APS headcount: 3,724
- Budget 2026-27: 23,215,442 thousand AUD
- Highest total remuneration: 893,527 AUD
- Directory roles: 75
Figures use publishable matches only (alias, abn, exact, case, punct, trading_name, wide_exact). Retrieved 2026-09-01.
Coverage — named in the headline (19)
- 2025-08-19 — How Home Affairs and DVA are using GovAI
- 2025-06-17 — Take a hike: Minns throws free DVA card access at backlash over camping fees
- 2025-05-21 — DVA action plan promotes authentic leadership
- 2025-04-10 — Movers & Shakers: DVA’s inaugural chief psychiatrist
- 2025-03-25 — Union appalled by Coalition’s DVA over-staffing claims
- 2024-12-09 — Frame: Data gaps see DVA ‘missing a lot of the picture’
- 2024-12-06 — DVA claims complexity increasing, capability review finds
- 2024-09-11 — DVA secretary vows systems change, says royal commission will improve lives of future generations
- 2024-03-26 — Tax, DEWR, DVA warned not to create robodebt 2.0
- 2024-03-19 — DVA’s trust issues take on a different tenor when lives are at stake
- 2024-03-15 — DVA, Defence to work together on royal commission recommendations, says Frame
- 2023-10-29 — DVA forms for compensation cause unnecessary suffering
- 2023-01-10 — Outgoing DVA secretary Liz Cosson on her hopes and challenges in 2023
- 2022-12-15 — Cosson bids farewell to DVA as PM picks talent from his own department
- 2022-06-28 — DVA says report publishing delayed due to caretaker period
- 2022-06-26 — DVA report finally published to reveal 37,000 backlog of claims
- 2021-03-09 — Audit finds Veterans’ Affairs is effectively managing reform program, but must address DVA underperformance
- 2018-07-20 — Fairer and less Kafkaesque: Elizabeth Cosson takes command of DVA’s five-year plan
- 2018-04-11 — Elizabeth Cosson appointed DVA secretary, Turnbull announces gender parity at the top
Passing mentions (10 shown)
Mentioned in the text but not the headline, so often not about this agency.
- 2026-08-27 — Movers & Shakers: Changes at the top across the nation
- 2026-08-06 — Movers & Shakers: Bumper Band 1 week
- 2026-06-25 — Veteran compensation to be made ‘simpler’ under changes
- 2026-06-16 — South Australian veterans’ champion reflects on career of service
- 2026-06-15 — Exemptions the biggest feature of Canberra’s new business KPMG ban
- 2026-05-13 — Welfare spending to top $300 billion
- 2026-05-12 — Headlines for the public service from the 2026-27 budget
- 2026-04-28 — The private company where veterans serve their country again — and are supported in return
- 2026-04-07 — Central agencies offer redundancies across APS
- 2026-03-09 — The lucky country: The top 100 public sector earners in Australia
Names over time
What each source called this agency, and in which years. Taken from the sources themselves, not from a register of establishment dates — those are not published.
| Reported as | Source | Years | Rows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Veterans' Affairs ⚠️ | APSC APS Employment Data | 2010-11 to 2025-26 | 3,341 |
| Veterans' Affairs ⚠️ | APSC agency metrics | 2010-11 to 2025-26 | 246 |
| Department of Veterans' Affairs | Annual report KMP disclosure | 2018-19 to 2024-25 | 66 |
| Department of Veterans' Affairs | Annual report expenditure | 2018-19 to 2024-25 | 78 |
| Department of Veterans' Affairs | AusTender (names as at today, not as at the contract) | 2019-20 to 2026-27 | 15,875 |
| Department of Veterans' Affairs | Annual report governance tables | 2019-20 to 2024-25 | 24 |
| Department of Veterans' Affairs | Portfolio Budget Statements | 2024-25 to 2029-30 | 305 |
⚠️ This agency has not always carried its current name. Figures in the earlier years were reported as Veterans' Affairs (2010-11 to 2025-26). They are shown here because the series is continuous, not because the agency is.
Payments to organisations — as reported by the agency
| Category | Payments | Total |
|---|---|---|
| Non-consultancy contracts | 20 | $196,027,139 |
| Consultancy | 15 | $20,595,333 |
| Advertising and campaigns | 43 | $4,127,648 |
Largest recipients across all reported years
| Organisation | ABN | Reported total | Years |
|---|---|---|---|
| DFP Recruitment (+2 other name(s) on this ABN) | 47001407281 | $71,199,940 | 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23 |
| JONES LANG LASALLE (ACT) PTY LTD | 69008585260 | $35,458,292 | 2021-22, 2024-25 |
| RANDSTAD PTY LTD (+1 other name(s) on this ABN) | 28080275378 | $32,506,305 | 2020-21, 2021-22, 2022-23 |
| BUPA HEALTH SERVICES PTY LTD | 50003098655 | $24,253,907 | 2021-22, 2022-23, 2024-25 |
| DFP RECRUITMENT (+1 other name(s) on this ABN) | 66394749447 | $11,611,541 | 2021-22, 2024-25 |
| PRICEWATERHOUSECOOPERS CONSULTING (AUSTRALIA) PTY LIMITED | 20607773295 | $10,595,966 | 2020-21, 2021-22 |
| MCARTHUR (VIC) PTY LTD | 75008186383 | $8,464,489 | 2020-21 |
| ACM RECRUITMENT PTY LTD | 31167236571 | $6,399,712 | 2020-21 |
| HUDSON GLOBAL RESOURCES (AUST) PTY LIMITED | — | $6,105,996 | 2020-21 |
| REASON GROUP PTY LTD | 34128711348 | $2,564,808 | 2020-21 |
| ERNST & YOUNG | 75288172749 | $1,915,999 | 2020-21, 2021-22 |
| MCKINSEY PACIFIC RIM | 66055131443 | $1,815,000 | 2021-22 |
From the expenditure disclosures in each annual report — a separate source from the AusTender contract figures above, and not directly comparable with them.
Workforce profile — as at 2025-12-31
| Measure | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| % CALD | 21.9% | at this date |
| % Female | 67.0% | at this date |
| % Indigenous | 2.1% | at this date |
| % at the APS classification level | 79.0% | at this date |
| % non-ongoing | 2.4% | at this date |
| % part-time (ongoing employees) | 10.0% | at this date |
| % who have worked in only one agency (ongoing employees) | 65.3% | at this date |
| % with a bachelors degree or higher | 57.5% | at this date |
| % with a disability | 4.2% | at this date |
| Exit rate - from agency (ongoing employees) | 9.9% | Year ending December 2025 |
| Headcount | 3,724 | at this date |
| Mean Age (years) | 43.8 years | at this date |
| Median LOS in APS (years) | 4.1 years | at this date |
| Separation rate - from APS (ongoing employees) | 6.7% | at this date |
APSC APS Employment Data, counting this agency including any bodies beneath it. Headcount, not FTE — the APSED release does not publish FTE.
Bodies beneath this agency — as at 2025-12-31
From the APSC sub-agency breakdown. A body listed here is counted inside the workforce profile above, so do not add the two.
Year by year
| Measure | 2010-11 | 2012-13 | 2013-14 | 2014-15 | 2015-16 | 2016-17 | 2017-18 | 2018-19 | 2019-20 | 2020-21 | 2021-22 | 2022-23 | 2023-24 | 2024-25 | 2025-26 | 2026-27 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| APS headcount | 2,146 | 2,091 | 2,011 | 1,998 | 2,006 | 2,005 | 1,949 | 1,876 | 1,746 | 1,772 | 2,346 | 3,082 | 3,653 | 3,866 | 4,038 | |
| SES | 49 | 51 | 51 | 47 | 51 | 16 | 14 | 13 | 19 | 19 | 17 | 17 | 18 | |||
| Contracts | 2,695 | 2,058 | 2,275 | 1,813 | 1,260 | 3,572 | 1,961 | 241 | ||||||||
| Contract value | $587,374,143 | $809,373,023 | $981,291,921 | $330,832,149 | $373,612,254 | $3,106,264,260 | $1,724,178,098 | $38,499,853 | ||||||||
| Budget ($000) | 19,126,555 | 23,215,442 | ||||||||||||||
| KMP disclosed | 10 | 12 | 12 | 5 | 18 | 4 | 5 | |||||||||
| Top total pay | $732,667 | $752,864 | $743,356 | $741,312 | $799,652 | $836,830 | $893,527 |
An empty cell means no publishable row for that year — unknown, not nil. Never read a blank as a fall to zero. ⚠️ This agency has not always carried its current name. Figures in the earlier years were reported as Veterans' Affairs (2010-11 to 2025-26). They are shown here because the series is continuous, not because the agency is.
Sources — annual reports
Each link opens transparency.gov.au — the published source the figures were read from. The label names the table to look for.
° The portal does not publish a path for this report, so the link opens the agency's reports on transparency.gov.au rather than that year directly. Pick the year from there.
