Public servants are being silenced by a politically motivated push to keep them from speaking out ahead of July's federal election, according to their main workplace union.
Public servants have been warned to watch their Facebook likes and shares during their election campaign, prompting an angry response from the Community and Public Sector Union, while Defence Force personnel have been told they will be punished if caught electioneering in uniform.
The union, which is campaigning for a Labor win on July 2, says the orders from the Australian Public Service Commission, and its boss Liberal loyalist John Lloyd, is "politically motivated over-reach" and "breathtakingly hypocritical".
Mr Lloyd declined to respond to the union's attack.
The Coalition has faced dissent from Commonwealth workers during its term. A recent row at the Australian Border Force saw officials accused of wearing fake uniforms while protesting against the government during a bitter two-year dispute over pay and conditions.
The government was hit with a backlash in 2014 from the military community with former Prime Minister Tony Abbott forced to back down on a pay offer in the face of a determined grassroots campaign, much of it conducted online, by Australian Defence Force families and support groups.
There is simmering resentment across the 150,000-strong public service over the government's attempt to force a hardline industrial relations agenda onto its employees through a new round of enterprise agreements.
Now the union, which has issued its own guide on how public servants can make political statements and keep their jobs, says public service authorities want to keep their employees out of the election.
"This warning from the APSC is politically motivated over-reach," CPSU national secretary Nadine Flood said.
"It's also breathtaking hypocrisy from John Lloyd...who's absolutely been a political player in pursuing the Turnbull Government's attacks on workplace rights, public services and the people who provide them.
"This over-the-top social media warning from the APSC simply highlights the fact that tens of thousands of APS workers are angry about their shabby treatment by the Turnbull Government, and are using their own evenings and weekends to participate in campaigning."
The public service set out rules on what is and is not permitted under its code-of-conduct and Commonwealth bureaucrats can engage in online political debates "within limits", according to the Commission.
Ms Flood said that public service should be "above politics", but wanted the disputes which have swept their workplaces for two years to be resolved.
"The essential public services that our members in the APS provide are absolutely above politics, which is why these workers are so keen for the attacks on services, jobs and workplace rights over the past three years to end," the union leader said.
Mr Lloyd said the union's attack was not worth a response.
"The statement by the CPSU is not worthy of comment," the commissioner said in a statement
