Jane Hume, who would be the finance minister in a future Coalition government, was asked about the 36,000 public servants the Coalition has all but pledged to cut.

She didn’t commit to a number, but said the Coalition would focus on ‘wasteful spending’.

What does that mean?

We have said from the very beginning that we will make sure that we guarantee essential services, that we guarantee those frontline workers*.

But let’s face it, there has been such an extraordinary growth, an extraordinary bloat in the
public service under this government that something has got to give because it is continually costing more and more.

On top of that, they’ve paid these new public servants and the existing ones an 11% pay rise. Now that is entirely unsustainable, that’s not even accounted for appropriately in the Budget. The Budget shows that, the MYEFO Budget shows that public sector wages are flat lining**.

But here’s the deal. This growth in the public service hasn’t actually corresponded with better
public services. So, for instance, the size of the Health Department has grown around 40%, yet bulk billing rates have collapsed***.

The size of the Energy and Environment portfolio has nearly doubled and yet emissions have gone up and environmental approval times have blown out****.

Services Australia…has seen a massive increase and yet we have seen a blow-out in the time it takes to get an aged pension five times as long to get a low income card. If you ring the Parenting and Families helpline you spend an hour on hold*****.

*Frontline services don’t work without people in the back end doing the work

**Could that be because of the freezes the Coalition had on the public service for almost a decade taking more than three years to address?

***The public service does not set bulk billing rates. This point makes exactly zero sense.

****The public service does not set energy policy. The public service only enacts the policies set by the government/parliament.

*****Do you think that maybe the answer then, would be MORE people to deal with the increased demand? Given that earlier Hume said that economics was still ‘supply and demand’ perhaps if the demand is growing, then maybe the answer is MORE people to address it?