Labor says the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet would be just one of 10 departments to be shut down if the Coalition implements its plans. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
It became clear very early in this federal election campaign that the Coalition went too far with its rhetoric about public servants in Canberra, but Labor now has also strayed into the realm of fantasy with its latest response to Peter Dutton’s on-again, off-again plans.
To recap, the Opposition Leader used his budget reply speech the evening before the election was called to say he would be getting rid of 41,000 public servants in Canberra.
The Coalition was also stating around the same time that it would require all public servants to return to the office five days a week if elected to government.
The idea of ending work from home went down like a lead zeppelin in the electorate and caused Mr Dutton no small amount of grief from within Coalition ranks.
Then came the backdown on both fronts.
The Opposition Leader apologised for his work-from-home policy and also eased up on his 41,000 sackings plan, saying those cuts would only be made through voluntary redundancies and natural attrition.
Additionally, there would be no cuts to frontline services and definitely no touching the workforce at national security agencies.
If the Coalition loses the election, it could probably be traced back to that point and Mr Dutton’s unravelling on his own stairway to heaven.
Dutton buckled and Labor leapt on the perceived weakness.
It was always a ridiculous notion that (mostly) working mothers would be forced back to the office full-time.
Just as nonsensical is the thought that 41,000 public service jobs could go without affecting frontline services.
Yet in continually making that point, Labor has also jumped the shark on the topic of public service jobs.
On Wednesday (23 April), the ALP took its scare tactics over public service jobs to an absurd level by saying Mr Dutton plans to shut down the Australian Government.
Oh, it had the numbers to prove it. Lots of people had worked hard on them.
By using how the Australian Public Service Commission classifies agencies according to their functions, and taking out frontline services and national security agencies, it would leave 32 per cent of the APS workforce.
In other words, just 61,610 positions would remain for the Coalition to find its 41,000 job cuts.
Labor ministers trotted out a list (remember they’d worked hard on these numbers) of 10 departments that would be gone, along with the number of jobs lost in each.
Here they are:
- Department of Education (1,777)
- Department of Health and Aged Care (7,571)
- Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water (5,479)
- Department of Employment and Workplace Relations (4,377)
- Department of Finance (2,182)
- Department of Industry, Science and Research (5,656)
- Department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development, Communications and the Arts (2,451)
- Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet (1,401)
- Department of Social Services (3,581)
- Department of the Treasury (2,218).
Then, even after all these departments were abolished, the government says, there would still be “a further 4,300 jobs to be cut elsewhere across the public service”, and that means smaller agencies would also need to go.
Whoa!
The numbers say this is equivalent to all the following agencies being shut down:
- National Indigenous Australians Agency (1,464)
- National Audit Office (475)
- Fair Work Commission (396)
- Future Fund Management Agency (343)
- Great Barrier Reef Marine Park Authority (246)
- Australian Skills Quality Authority (249)
- National Health and Medical Research Council (256)
- National Offshore Petroleum Safety and Environmental Management Authority (173)
- Productivity Commission (178)
- Australian Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency (178)
- Australian Research Council (137)
- Australian Commission on Safety and Quality in Health Care (142)
- Workplace Gender Equality Agency (48)
- Domestic, Family and Sexual Violence Commission (16).
While the point Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher and Health Minister Mark Butler were trying to make is that is an “absolute nonsense” (as Senator Gallagher put it) to think you can slash 41,000 jobs and still maintain the same levels of frontline service and national security – the sell was that this is what will happen under a Dutton-led Coalition government.
And the sell was too much – too over the top – because no one really believes the Coalition actually wants to shut down the government.
By using those exact words – “shut down government” – when pushing out their skewed numbers, Labor has joined the Coalition in using the public service to score political points with cynical statements.
The public service, and the voting public, are smarter than that and perhaps deserve a bit more respect from both sides.
