Clive Palmer wants to ‘cut waste’ in Canberra and that might mean getting rid of more external consultants to the APS. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer thinks the Australian Public Service is overrun by external consultants and he wants to do something about it.
Addressing the National Press Club on Thursday (13 March), Mr Palmer promised to cut waste in Canberra if any of his Trumpet of Patriots candidates were voted in at the upcoming federal election.
And he vowed to pass the savings he made from slashing the bureaucracy onto “the needy”.
But it seems the consultancy sector is in his sights even more than full-time public servants.
“We will look at the tasks and priorities of government and then we will look at the budget and then we will look at efficiency and how those tasks can be done more efficiently,” he said.
“We don’t want to go in with any prejudice… but I have observed a lot of public service work is given to consultants at five times the cost…
“The general idea of mass consultants is something I don’t agree with.”
Mr Palmer said his party would see if some jobs in the public service could be amalgamated or “whether there might be a need for there to be more public servants in order to get a job done properly”.
The Coalition under the leadership of Opposition Leader Peter Dutton is vowing to cut 36,000 jobs from the public service if it wins office.
Mr Palmer would not put a figure on job losses or efficiencies needed yet because he said he didn’t have access to the Australian bureaucracy like Elon Musk did in the United States.
But he is looking to Mr Musk and US President Donald Trump’s approach to cost-saving across the public sector as an example to follow. Trumpet of Patriots is named after the US President.
Mr Palmer made no excuses for wanting to implement similar policies in Australia to those currently being rolled out in the US.
“I personally think we have a uni-party in Australia, where you have Labor and the Liberals working together,” he said.
“It’s time to give them some opposition.”
Mr Palmer referred to Mr Dutton and Prime Minister Anthony Albanese as a pair of whingers who didn’t have the nation’s best interests at heart.
“It’s a battle of ideas. We need new ideas in this country…,” he said.
“For too long, Australians have suffered over their duopoly of power.
“Labor and Liberal parties against the interests of all Australians.
“It’s either Tweedledum or Tweedledee. It’s dumb or dumber, or it’s B1 or B2. We want to change that.”
The billionaire said tens of thousands of Australians had signed up to his new party since it was launched last month under the same colour as his old United Australia Party (UAP).
“We’ve got now over 20,000 members across Australia and thousands of people are joining every day because they’ve had enough of the boring politicians that don’t answer questions,” he said.
“They’ve had enough of seeing their income decline lower and lower every week.
“They’ve had enough of their children being harassed at schools and they want change.”
Venturing into housing during his speech, Mr Palmer said he would allow Australians to access 30 per cent of their super for a home deposit.
He would also cap home loans at three per cent and underwrite the housing market with government borrowing.
His other policies include imposing severe limits on immigration numbers and recognising only two genders.
“Our policy is to recognise that there are two genders, a man and a woman – male and female,” he said.
“If you go on the website for the World Health Organisation (WHO), you’ll find they recognise that.
“We all should recognise that too and put away debates that are very, very on the periphery.”
WHO actually recognises gender as socially constructed and different to biological sex.
When that was put to Mr Palmer during the Q&A following his speech, he said he meant to say there were only two sexes.
He was also asked about how much he intended to spend on the election campaign, fielding candidates in every Lower House electorate.
“As much as my wife will let me,” he responded.
Mr Palmer’s UAP spent $123 million at the last federal election with one candidate elected to the Senate.
