Australia’s public service has embraced working from home. But the government’s office footprint tells a very different story.

New figures show federal agencies are continuing to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on office accommodation, even as large numbers of public servants work remotely for several days each week.

The numbers reveal just how much workplace culture has changed since the COVID-19 pandemic.

At the Department of Health, 61 per cent of employees work from home three or more days a week. At Home Affairs, 36 per cent of employees spend fewer than two days a week in the office, yet the department spent $115 million on office leasing in 2024-25.

The Workplace Gender Equality Agency provides an even more striking example. Almost all of its 43 employees have working-from-home arrangements, with 79 per cent working remotely at least three days a week. Thirteen employees work from home five days a week, while the agency spent about $658,000 operating its Sydney office in 2024-25.

So, has the government reduced its office footprint?

Not by much.

According to the 2025 Australian government office occupancy figures, federal agencies occupied around 2.3 million square metres of usable office space , almost exactly the same as in 2019, before the pandemic transformed workplace habits.

Meanwhile, net expenditure on government office accommodation increased from approximately $1.3 billion in 2019 to $1.6 billion in 2025.

The public service has also expanded. Its headcount has grown by almost 25 per cent since 2022, while its total wages and salaries bill passed $40 billion last year.

The government argues that it is adapting. Average office tenancy costs per employee reportedly fell from $9,459 in 2022 to $8,537 in 2025, and officials say some agencies have reduced floor space to accommodate hybrid working.

But the numbers raise a bigger question: if the way people work has changed, should the spaces they work in change too?

For Australia’s increasingly hybrid workforce, this is no longer simply a debate about working from home. It is a question about productivity, flexibility and whether taxpayers are still funding a workplace model designed for a different era.