The Labour Government has gradually worked as a consulting company to expand the government sector.
A day before the federal budget, Finance Minister Katie Gallagher announced that Labour had saved $720 million in private consulting expenses as part of the $2.1 billion planned cuts by Labour.
This move comes as governments become obsessed with election fights over spending levels.
Labour has embarked on a project to reclaim outsourced work within the agency.
She argued that this approach is more efficient than the coalition’s plan to cut down on public services jobs.
“It meant we could invest in the most important things, such as cost of living, Medicare, housing,” she said.
However, the opposition has argued that expanded public services are in vain.
Coalition’s cutting plan
Opposition leader Peter Dutton has vowed to cut the workforce by about 36,000.
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Dutton argues that Australia’s public services should not exceed 200,000 employees, but have not committed to certain reduction targets.
“I think the scale of public services has been blown away too, and on Tuesday night you can see exactly how much it was blown away,” said Jane Hume, spokesman for Coalition Finance, in an interview with ABC News Breakfast.
The coalition says frontline roles are protected, but Labour argues that significant job cuts will inevitably affect key institutions, including defense, veteran issues and health.
“You can’t run around saying you cut 36,000 jobs and pretend they don’t come from any of these frontline service areas,” Gallagher said.
Minimal budget impact, transparency concerns
Future budgets will show new spending, including Medicare’s $8.5 billion and $1.8 billion energy rebates.
The government has defended employment decisions, but economists argue that the cuts proposed by the coalition have little impact on government spending overall.
Productivity Committee Chairman Daniel Wood noted that excluding frontline workers from cuts limits potential savings.
“In terms of the proportion of government spending, that’s small,” she said on the insider: on a background podcast.
Meanwhile, Green is increasing transparency in consultant spending.
Greens Sen. Barbara Pocock criticized the labor for not breaking down external contractor costs individually, and it is unclear whether the actual costs of consulting have been reduced.
“This tactic of hiding the actual amount spent on consultants means there is no way to know if the government is actually spending it on consultants,” Pocock said.
She called for a 15% annual reduction in consultant spending over the next five years.
