Liberal Senator James Paterson has confirmed the Coalition’s plan to cut 41,000 public service jobs would occur via steady attrition and voluntary redundancies, not forced sackings.
Under the current government, Australian taxpayers support 185,343 public service jobs—41,000 of which were introduced in just three years under Labor Prime Minister Anthony Albanese.
The increase equates to a 20 percent increase in public roles.
The Coalition had originally announced a plan to cut those new hires, but after poor polling, the Liberal-National Coalition revised its plan saying it would instead cut those positions more steadily.
Senator Paterson said public service workers had nothing to fear.
“We will cap the size of the Australian public service and reduce the numbers back to the levels they were three years ago through natural attrition and voluntary redundancies,” he told ABC Radio National on April 11.
“Our policy is always based on natural attrition and voluntary redundancies.
“That’s what our costings are based on.”
Paterson said costings with advice from the independent Parliamentary Budget Office. Once complete, the Victorian senator says it will save taxpayers about $7 billion annually.
Paterson’s assurances come just days after Labor’s Employment Minister Murray Watt said the cuts would impact workers all over the country, including those in his home state—as well as Opposition Leader Peter Dutton’s—Queensland.
“There are 41,000 livelihoods that are at stake as a result of these cuts, but there are millions of Queenslanders whose livelihoods are at stake in terms of the kind of services that they receive from the federal public service.”
Services Will Continue
Shadow spokeswoman for the public service Jane Hume said services would not be impacted under a Coalition government.“We‘ll make sure that we cut the wasteful spending from the public service, and we’ll also ensure that the size of the public service is reduced by 41,000 over a period of five years, that will be done through natural attrition and it will be done through a hiring freeze,” she said, based on current modelling, five years is what’s needed to achieve the Coalition’s goal.
“There will be no forced redundancies,” Hume said.
“Most importantly, we will make sure that we enshrine flexible working arrangements, not just the ones that exist, but ones going forward in the future as well.”
The Community and Public Sector Union National Secretary Melissa Donnelly has been highly critical of the Coalition’s plan.
“This is a recipe for delays, disasters, and a decline in critical services,” she said.
