Latest round of ‘reprioritised’ spending includes $720m from cuts on consultants, contractors and labour hire as Labor tries to rebuild public serviceGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastLabor has found more than $2bn in budget savings as it spruiks its record in cutting and re-directing former Coalition government spending to fund its agenda.Led by the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, the government has embarked on a three-year long process of axing or shifting funding to help repair the budget bottom line and free up space for its own spending priorities.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading…Latest round of ‘reprioritised’ spending includes $720m from cuts on consultants, contractors and labour hire as Labor tries to rebuild public serviceGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastLabor has found more than $2bn in budget savings as it spruiks its record in cutting and re-directing former Coalition government spending to fund its agenda.Led by the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, the government has embarked on a three-year long process of axing or shifting funding to help repair the budget bottom line and free up space for its own spending priorities.Sign up for Guardian Australia’s breaking news email Continue reading…
Labor has found more than $2bn in budget savings as it spruiks its record in cutting and re-directing former Coalition government spending to fund its agenda.
Led by the finance minister, Katy Gallagher, the government has embarked on a three-year long process of axing or shifting funding to help repair the budget bottom line and free up space for its own spending priorities.
Gallagher has revealed a further $2.1bn has been clawed back ahead of Tuesday’s federal budget, taking the total values of savings and “reprioritised” spending to almost $95bn this term.
The latest round included $720m from cutting back on consultants, contractors and labour hire, as Labor tries to rebuild the capacity of public service.
It means a total of $4.7bn has been saved from winding back the use of external labour since 2022.
Gallagher’s office would not detail where the remaining $1.4bn in savings in this year’s budget was found.
The minister has used the figures to contrast Labor’s priorities with those of Peter Dutton’s opposition, which is planning public service cuts and a return-to-office edict if it wins the election.
“The choice for Australians couldn’t be clearer – a Labor government focused on repairing the budget to pay for the things that matter, or the Coalition’s plans to cut frontline services to try to pay for their $600bn nuclear scheme,” Gallagher said.
The Coalition has repeatedly criticised the 36,000 extra public service positions created under the Albanese government, without explicitly detailing how many of those jobs would be axed.
The shadow finance minister, Jane Hume, on Sunday said a Dutton government intended to return the commonwealth bureaucracy to the level it was when Labor was elected in 2022.
That comment suggests all of the positions would go despite the Coalition’s promise, which Hume repeated on Sunday, to protect frontline worker roles.
“We think that the 36,000 public servants that have been brought on haven’t demonstrated the improvements to the services to the public have been corresponding,” Hume, who is also the shadow public service minister, told Sky News.
“Let’s face it, services haven’t improved but the cost and size of the public service has expanded and bloated exponentially.”
The shadow treasurer, Angus Taylor, on Sunday sidestepped the question of whether a Coalition government would again turn to private consultants to plug gaps in the public service.
A 2023 audit found the Morrison government spent $20.8bn on consultants in its final 12 months, employing the equivalent of 54,000 workers.
Labor on Sunday stepped its attacks on the Coalition’s plan to summon public servants back to the office, publishing analysis suggesting it could cost workers almost extra $5,000 a year on transport costs and parking fees.
“We know that working from home has had a range of advantages,” the prime minister, Anthony Albanese, said.
“One of those is less time travelling, whether that be in a private motor vehicle or on public transport to and from home. It’s also enabled people to overcome the tyranny of distance in this great country.
The Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU) will launch a similar attack on Monday, claiming one in three Australian workers would be affected if private sector bosses followed Dutton’s lead.
The ACTU president, Michele O’Neil, said clamping down on remote work would be a “productivity killer” that would hurt women the most.
“Forcing hundreds of thousands of workers back on the roads will mean less time with kids and more time in traffic,” she said.
“Blanket orders summoning people back to the workplace, will leave thousands without access to work from home settings and other flexible work options.
“This would be an instant productivity killer, because flexible work has pushed women’s workforce participation to record highs, as one million women joined the workforce in the last four years.”