Albanese govt confident Services Australia can be 'rehumanised', Bill Shorten says

The Albanese government on Monday tabled its response to the royal commission's findings on the unlawful scheme, released in July, announcing it had accepted, or accepted in-principle, all 56 recommendations.

Among them, royal commissioner Catherine Holmes urged the government to undertake an immediate and full review examining whether the existing structure of the social services portfolio, and the status of Services Australia as an entity, were optimal.

The government agreed in-principle to consider the "most optimal arrangement of functions and responsibilities between the Department of Social Services and agencies in the social services portfolio, and the status of Services Australia".

Asked about this recommendation on Monday, Mr Shorten said the government was confident in Services Australia and its staff, many of whom had been "traumatised" by the scheme.

"We have confidence that Services Australia can be rehumanised," Mr Shorten told journalists in Canberra.

"There's nearly 30,000 people who work at Services Australia, many of them were traumatised as they were required to carry out really morally bankrupt instructions from their senior leadership and the then government of the day.

"What we're doing is putting the human back into human services, literally thousands of ongoing public servant positions will be created.

"What we've also announced as late as last Thursday, is we're putting in place a new advisory board."

Mr Shorten last week announced an additional 3000 roles in Services Australia would be funded, as well as a new advisory body to guide the design of the myGov platform, chaired by former NSW Liberal minister Victor Dominello.

The government had faced criticism from the main public sector union earlier this year over a shortfall of 1800 roles in the agency this financial year, which it said were surge staff associated with COVID-19.

"So we're changing the nature of our governance approach in Services Australia as well as properly resourcing it so we don't set it up to fail," Mr Shorten said.