Peter Dutton has stated that the Coalition would fund an $8.5 billion increase in Medicare by cutting thousands of public servant jobs, providing yet another distinct stance on the Coalition’s still undefined strategies for the public service.
Following weeks of conflicting statements from senior shadow ministers regarding how many positions the Coalition would abolish if it gains power, Dutton has now clarified that his plan could save $6 billion annually — potentially representing nearly all of the new positions created under Labor.
Dutton, who has remained vague about the exact reduction of the Australian Public Service and which workers would be targeted, has suggested his plan would raise $24 billion over four years. The opposition leader stated that these savings would finance his pledge to match the government’s Medicare $8.5 billion policy.
“The government has added an extra 36,000 public servants,” Dutton declared at a press conference in Brisbane on Monday. “We will reduce that number, and those savings will be about $6 billion a year. That’s the advice we have.”
Both Labor and the Coalition have faced pressure to specify how they would fund Sunday’s Medicare announcements. Labor’s policy, launched by Anthony Albanese in Tasmania, was quickly mirrored by Dutton.
The government stated that more than $5 billion of the $8.5 billion had already been budgeted in its mid-year fiscal and economic outlook, with the remainder possibly funded through yet-to-be announced policies. Dutton’s commitment to match the spending came without any financial details.
The health minister, Mark Butler, criticized Dutton’s pledge as a “performance”, claiming the Coalition “cannot be trusted” to support Medicare. Albanese accused his counterpart of merely contributing “thought bubbles” to policy debates.
On Monday, Dutton proposed that removing public servants would lead to “$24 billion in savings over the four-year forward estimates period”.
He argued that the public service had “grown dramatically under the Labor party, with 36,000 additional public servants, at a cost of $6 billion a year”.
Dutton stated that the savings from the Coalition policy to cut the public service would amount to $6 billion a year.
Government sources indicated that a saving of $6 billion a year through cutting APS jobs would roughly equal all jobs added under Labor. The public service minister, Katy Gallagher, was contacted for comment.
Gallagher previously mentioned that Labor since coming to power has employed about 4,000 positions at Services Australia; 4,000 in defense, home affairs, and the Australian federal police; 3,600 at the National Disability Insurance Agency; 3,000 at the Australian Taxation Office; and 1,000 at the Department of Veterans’ Affairs.
Labor has maintained that the growth in the public service mostly consists of positions previously outsourced to higher-paid outside consultants or labor hire by previous governments.
Dutton has stated that “frontline” services will be protected from cuts. However, Coalition MPs have given vastly different answers when asked how many positions might be reduced under this plan and how it would be implemented.
The Nationals leader, David Littleproud,previously said all 36,000 jobs “would be gone”, but then said this month, “We’re not going to have to cut hardly any of them”.
Dutton himself has been hesitant about the number of jobs lost. He has suggested a focus on axing jobs related to diversity and inclusion (DEI) along with “change managers” and “internal communication specialists”, which represent small numbers of APS workers.
The shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, suggested “natural attrition” would primarily drive reductions. The shadow minister for government efficiency, Jacinta Nampijinpa Price, told The Australian the Coalition “won’t be cutting” the public service workforce but would “halt” new growth, then later claimed there would be “sensible reductions” to the APS.
Dutton on Monday said the Medicare commitment represents “a significant amount of money, but we’ve identified the offset, the savings. Labor hasn’t done that”.
“These 36,000 public servants who are in Canberra, I’m sure they are good people, well-intentioned, but it brings the number of public servants to over 209,000,” he stated.
Gallagher has emphasized that two-thirds of APS jobs are based outside Canberra, and about three-quarters of the newly employed workers are outside the nation’s capital, including large workforces in Townsville, Geelong, and Tasmania.
“You cannot simply pretend that you can remove 20% of the public service and not have an impact on people’s lives,” she stated in January.
