Opposition Leader Peter Dutton has again stressed that all 41,000 APS job cuts will come from Canberra. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Peter Dutton can’t seem to avoid Canberra bashing when talking about the public service. The latest incident has seen the Opposition Leader assure Tasmanians that only the ACT will be hit with Australian Public Service (APS) job losses.
But no-one seems to have told his Canberra-based Liberal Party Senate candidate Jacob Vadakkedathu, who just a few hours earlier said most of the cuts wouldn’t come from the ACT.
Asked in Hobart on Thursday (24 April) how many of the 41,000 jobs to be cut from the public service would come from that city, Mr Dutton said none – and stressed the cuts would all come from Canberra.
“We’ve been very clear about that,” he said, before adding that “some of those positions of course, haven’t even been filled yet so they are projected numbers.”
Earlier the same day as a guest on Canberra’s radio 2CC, Mr Vadakkedathu, the Coalition’s lead Senate candidate for the ACT, was at odds with his party leader.
During a candidate debate, Mr Vadakkedathu was at pains to stress that nowhere near the 41,000 APS jobs the Coalition wanted to get rid of would come from the ACT.
“Only one third will be here in the ACT … over a five year period, we’re trying to reduce the number,” he said.
ACT Liberal Senate candidate Jacob Vadakkedathu has contradicted Peter Dutton over APS jobs. Photo: Facebook.
The contradicting comments allowed Labor to jump on them as examples of the Coalition flip-flopping and failure to agree on its own policy.
Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher said the exchanges showed “how dangerous” the Opposition’s policymaking processes were.
“The only thing that is clear from Peter Dutton’s reckless approach to APS cuts is that Australians will pay the price,” Senator Gallagher said.
“Extraordinarily, Peter Dutton and his own candidate have contradicted one another in just a matter of hours about where and when they will sack 41,000 staff – demonstrating just how dangerous their policymaking process is.
“It’s about time Peter Dutton fronts up and explains to the tens of thousands of families who work in our national capital why he believes they should be out of a job. Their ridiculous claims on job cuts simply don’t add up. It is impossible to cut 41,000 jobs in Canberra without gutting frontline services and national security.”
She said Australians needed a government that would strengthen Medicare, not one that would oversee the Americanisation of our healthcare system.
“This reckless agenda of cutting government services that Dutton has imported from overseas will leave every single Australian worse off.”
Labor repeated a distribution of its own subjective numbers of how many jobs would be lost in what government agencies if Mr Dutton unleashed his plan.
After initially going hard on promising to slash 41,000 jobs from the public service, the Opposition Leader backed off for a while, saying they would only come from voluntary redundancies and natural attrition.
But he has ramped up the rhetoric again of late, insisting he will be able to find 41,000 jobs to cut and they would all come from the capital.
Mr Dutton also backed down over his plan to force all public servants back to the office five days a week.
A Coalition internal revolt over that policy forced the backflip and an apology from the Opposition Leader.
