Why is the public service a 2025 election issue?

Inside the debate on the public service and government waste.

Transcript

00:00If you live in Canberra, or even if you don't, you might have heard the Coalition saying things like this.

00:05We'll reverse Labor's increase of 41,000 Canberra public servants

00:10because it will save about $7 billion a year.

00:14That's money that we can provide back to the Australian people in frontline services.

00:19Attacks on so-called government waste have been a key feature in the lead-up to federal elections for years.

00:24Both the major parties have jostled for power, claiming they can make the government more efficient.

00:29Right now, the Coalition says that an addition of 41,000 public servants under Labor has been wasteful.

00:35But to really understand this debate, we need to rewind to 2022, when Labor was waging its own war on waste.

00:42People who I knew, good professional public servants,

00:47put off by the Department of Widgets,

00:52then re-employed as contractors,

00:56being paid more than they were as the dep sec of the Department of Widgets.

01:03From opposition, Labor was highly critical of the Morrison government's spending on consultants, contractors and labor hire.

01:10They argued a cap on the public service led to billions wasted on outsourcing and promised to reverse that.

01:16In power, the Albanese government have done what they said they would,

01:20directing agencies to reduce outsourcing and projecting savings of $4.7 billion by the end of June 2029.

01:27But to make this happen, they've had to put tens of thousands of public servants back on the books.

01:32They say this is a critical investment in integrity and capability for the public service,

01:37making reference to scandals like Robodebt and the PwC tax leak.

01:41The Coalition says outsourcing is not such a bad thing and that they could use it in a cost-effective way.

01:46They're indicating that they'll cut potentially tens of thousands of public servants from Canberra,

01:51but they haven't answered questions about from what agencies and how that would affect services and programs.