Thousands of newly created jobs in national security, Aukus, government services and veterans affairs could be at risk from Peter Dutton’s new Elon Musk-style crusade for “government efficiency” and reducing the public service, the Labor government claims.
Dutton and senior members of his shadow cabinet have called for many or all of the new public servants employed under the Labor government since 2022 to be sacked, claiming the 36,000 new positions are not needed and would be removed under a Coalition government, with its proposed minister for government efficiency.
The finance and public service minister, Katy Gallagher, has countered that most of the new jobs are not based in Canberra, as the Coalition has claimed, and that there would be major negative effects, including long waiting times for essential government services – from answering phones at Centrelink to processing disability support claims and migration applications.
“It’s easy to make a statement like that, it’s much harder to back it up in any detail, and even more difficult to deliver it,” Gallagher said of Dutton’s attack.
So what would it mean to cut the new positions?
What are the 36,000 new positions?
Gallagher’s office said that since coming to government Labor had employed about 4,000 positions at Services Australia; 4,000 in defence, home affairs and at the Australian federal police; 3,600 at the National Disability Insurance Agency; 3,000 at the Australian Taxation Office; 1,000 at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs; and thousands more in the agriculture and energy departments.
Labor has maintained its growth to the public service is largely in positions previously outsourced to higher-paid outside consultants or labour hire by former governments.
What would be the effect of cutting them?
Gallagher’s office said significant cuts to those roles could lead to delayed payments and waiting times in government services or veterans’ affairs, undermine tax avoidance crackdowns, affect biosecurity or affect disability services.
Cuts to the 4,000 jobs in defence, home affairs or the AFP would pose a threat to national security or the implementation of Aukus, it was claimed.
“Peter Dutton never speaks about this, [the government has made] investments into the defence force for Aukus and all of the other projects that are under way there, into our national security agencies, into the AFP,” Gallagher said.
“Is he going to start sacking 20% of them as well, because they are public servants?”
Dutton has said savings from cutting public servants could be redirected to cost-of-living relief, defence or security funding.
Are the jobs really all in Canberra?
While Dutton has also claimed the public servants are all employed in Canberra, Gallagher’s office noted that two-thirds of APS jobs were based outside Canberra, and that about three-quarters of the newly employed workers were outside the nation’s capital, including large workforces in Townsville, Geelong and Tasmania.
“What does it actually mean? What does that mean for jobs in WA, in Tasmania. A fortnight ago, I was there, 4,000 jobs in Hobart. What does that mean for a regional centre like that, if you just go around saying you’re going to cut 20,000 jobs?” Gallagher said on Monday at a news conference.
“You just can’t pretend that you can remove 20% of the public service and not have an impact on people’s lives.”
What is Dutton planning to do?
Dutton on Saturday appointed Jacinta Nampijinpa Price as the shadow minister for government efficiency, with the title reminiscent of the US president, Donald Trump, appointing the world’s richest person, Elon Musk, to lead an agency called the Department of Government Efficiency. Musk has also called for cuts to the American public service.
In a statement announcing the shadow reshuffle, Dutton claimed Australians were “sick of the wasteful spending that is out of control under the Albanese government”, nominating as his first example “the 36,000 additional Canberra public servants employed under this government”.
On Friday, Dutton told FiveAA radio: “We are going to cut public servant jobs in Canberra.”
In a 6PR radio interview in August 2024, the Nationals leader, David Littleproud – who would become deputy prime minister in a Coalition government – said “the Nationals have made it clear that we will get rid of those in Canberra. There’ll be 36,000 public servants that will go.”
On Saturday, Dutton said the government efficiency minister would not be its own standalone entity like Musk’s Doge but instead sit inside the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet.
“The government’s taken a decision to employ 36,000 new public servants in Canberra at a cost of about $6bn a year and growing and growing every year,” he claimed.
“I just don’t think any Australian can say that their lives are simpler or better off today because of the tens of thousands of additional public servants that the prime minister’s employed in Canberra.”
Gallagher challenged Dutton to say exactly which public servants would be cut, and what effect it would have on government service delivery.
“I hear him saying there hasn’t been any impact or any positive impact from having those extra public servants in place. Simply not true,” she said.
“We know that waiting times are coming down for services. We know veterans are getting their help on time. Disability through the NDIS is improving in terms of access.”
