Katy Gallagher has denied operating a scare marketing campaign in opposition to the Liberals on the chance the general public service could be gutted if the opposition was elected subsequent yr, whereas warning she has “no doubts” the slash-and-burn would result in one other robodebt-style saga.
A number of Coalition frontbenchers have ramped up their assaults on federal forms in latest months, accusing the Albanese authorities of mismanaging the funds by hiring greater than 30,000 individuals to undertake key service supply jobs, together with in Centrelink and the NDIS.
It comes as mining magnate, Gina Rinehart, has referred to as for an Australian reply to Elon Musk’s proposed division of presidency effectivity, or Doge, signalling her curiosity in slicing authorities “intrusion” and “waste”.
Gallagher, who holds the finance, girls’s and public service portfolios, informed a room of prime bureaucrats on Thursday morning that the following federal election would put the Australian public service at a crossroads.
“I know that the APS will be front and centre at the next election campaign, not by choice, but by decisions of others. And as the APS rightly stays silent on these matters, as minister, I do stand ready to defend what has been achieved to date, but could so easily be taken away,” she mentioned.
“A strong, independent and capable APS is worth fighting for and I’m not going to sit by and allow a lazy, arrogant and reckless anti-APS campaign to be waged without a strong rebuttal.”
However the ACT senator, who additionally as soon as led the nation’s capital as its chief minister, went additional at a press convention shortly after, warning that the opposition’s “thirst for savings” allowed the unlawful robodebt scheme to go on for too lengthy and that she feared a repeat if Dutton was elected.
“There’s no doubt that the lack of independence and the control of executive government had a lot to do with how long robodebt went on for. It was a thirst for savings to run a fiscal strategy that actually caused, in some instances, the death of innocent Australians,” Gallagher mentioned.
“I mean, it is the most extraordinary public administration failure and I would hope we never go back there … But if you cut 20% of the APS’s resourcing, there will be failures of systems. I have no doubt about it.”
Gallagher denied the warnings fashioned a part of a scare marketing campaign to spice up Labor’s outlook within the upcoming federal ACT Senate race.
“I think it would probably be negligent [of] me not to raise it, and I don’t know how you talk about public sector reform and looking at what you do next when there is this big shadow of a threat to cut 36,000 jobs from the public service,” she mentioned.
“It’s not scare-mongering at all. It’s simply saying the facts.”
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The Nationals chief, David Littleproud, flagged in August his intention to chop 36,000 jobs from Canberra.
“The Nationals have made it clear that we will get rid of those in Canberra. There will be 36,000 public servants that will go. We don’t need more public servants,” he informed 6PR radio.
The opposition chief, Peter Dutton, beforehand queried whether or not the additional workforce was wanted at a Minerals Council convention in September. Dutton has additionally attributed the increase in public servant numbers to excessive inflation figures.
The shadow public service minister, Jane Hume, pointed to the Reserve Financial institution’s warning in opposition to elevated public spending to sort out inflation.
“Australia has and must maintain its world-class public service. But they should not be expected to foot the bill for an expanding public service that provides worse services,” she mentioned.
The variety of public servants has risen to greater than 185,000 as of June, an 8.9% enhance on the earlier yr, the most recent State of the Service report launched by the Australian Public Service Fee in November confirmed.
Because the Albanese authorities was elected in Might 2022, the forms has grown by about 26,000 locations, or 16.4%. Since 2022, the general public service has averaged a 171,000-strong workforce in contrast with a bit greater than 150,000 underneath Coalition governments.
A staffing cap was positioned on departments and businesses underneath the previous Coalition authorities, leading to many requiring the providers of contractors and consultants to handle workload adjustments. The cap was eliminated by the Albanese authorities after being elected.
A authorities audit in Might 2023 discovered the previous Morrison authorities had spent $20.8bn outsourcing greater than a 3rd of public service operations.
