When Stephanie Foster was appointed Home Affairs Secretary, the department had the ignominious reputation as the worst to work for in the Australian Public Service .

Two years later, she appears to have turned the ship around after years of poor staff feedback, with the agency now ranking just below average for employee engagement in the 2025 APS employee census.

The results, which The Canberra Times have obtained exclusively, show that 72 per cent of respondents said they would recommend Home Affairs as a good place to work - up 10 per cent on last year- while 78 per cent were proud to work for the agency (up eight per cent) and 77 per cent were satisfied with their jobs (up four per cent).

"Anecdotally, the people who run recruitment agencies or talent programs are telling me peop

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