Coalition reveals public service to face ‘voluntary redundancies’

The Coalition has revealed for the first time that it will seek voluntary redundancies as part of its strategy to trim the public service to make Budget savings.

“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,” Coalition Senator James Paterson told ABC on Friday morning.

Mr Paterson’s statement was the first time the Coalition has publicly mentioned the prospect of voluntary redundancies in its pledge to reduce the number of civil servants by 41,000.

Earlier this week, the Opposition toned down previous indications of forced job cuts, stating it would achieve the target through a hiring freeze and natural attrition. It also announced a major reversal of its policy to ban civil servants from working from home.

Mr Paterson did not reveal any further details of how many redundancies the Coalition would seek or how it would pay for leaving packages.

Asked about the previously unknown policy at a press conference in Bayswater, WA on Friday afternoon, Mr Dutton refused to reveal more information of what a redundancy scheme would entail.

“We’ve spoken about that a lot. And the point I’d make in relation to the issue is that Australians are working harder than ever. There are Australians now who are working second to their jobs, paying taxes. Can’t keep their heads above water,” he said.

Asked a second time, he said: “We have worked with the PBO (Parliamentary Budget Office) to look at where we have an employment freeze, and where we have the natural attrition that helps us achieve the 41,000 that we’re talking about.”

Asked a third time how much the Coalition had set aside for redundancies and what proportion of the 41,000 would be expected to take the offer, he shut down the question with a brief: “I’ve dealt with that.”

Slashing the size of the bureaucracy has been a central plank of the Coalition’s financial strategy to achieve an eventual $7 billion a year in savings to pay for election pledges including a match of Labor’s $8.5b fund for Medicare bulk billing.

“Our policy is always based on natural attrition and voluntary redundancies. That’s what our costings are based on,” said Senator Paterson in his radio interview.

“That’s what we’ve sought advice from the PBO on, and that’s why we’ll achieve the savings once it’s mature of $7b a year,” he said.

The Senator stressed that front-line service roles, including defence and national security, would not be targeted but did not reveal which departments would be in line for cuts.

The Coalition’s plans to cut the headcount of the public service has opened up a line of attack for Labor ahead of the May 3 poll.

Finance Minister Katy Gallagher accused the Opposition of risking much-needed public services in the Northern Territory at a Friday morning press conference in Darwin.

“Peter Dutton has said he will cut 41,000 jobs from the public service … Senator Paterson has said there will be redundancies in the public service. So, this rubbish that it’s all going to be found by attrition, has been put to bed today,” she said.

“They’ve been very clear that they’re going to cut hundreds of billions of dollars, which they see as waste. That will mean jobs will go, services will go.

“And then the real kicker is they’re not going to tell you when those cuts are going and where they’re going from until after the election,” she said.