Coalition Plans To Reduce 41,000 Public Service Jobs, Focus On Canberra-Based Roles

Australia's Opposition party leader, Peter Dutton, confirmed on Thursday that the Coalition's plan to cut 41,000 public service jobs will only affect positions based in Canberra.

This has raised concerns about how the cuts can be made without impacting frontline or national security roles, especially since only about a third of public servants work in Canberra.

Dutton explained that some of the job reductions could come from not filling current vacancies.

Meanwhile, Nationals leader David Littleproud supported this idea, saying there were many publicly funded positions that remain unfilled.

"They're on the budget, but in fact, we won't be putting those jobs on. So that means that there is saving, so we've been very clear about that," Littleproud said, ABC AU reported.

Neither Dutton nor other leaders have said how many jobs would be cut, but have focused on reducing Canberra-based positions. Dutton previously said cutting 41,000 public servants in Canberra would save about AU$7 billion a year.

It was later clarified that the AU$7 billion savings would take five years to achieve, and frontline and national security jobs would not be affected.

However, Labor argued the cuts were unrealistic and could force some departments to close, since there are only around 60,000 non-frontline public servants across the whole country.

Opposition plans voluntary cuts

The opposition said job cuts would happen through voluntary redundancies, natural attrition, and a hiring freeze, not forced layoffs.

However, former Public Service Commissioner Andrew Podger said the Coalition's plan to cut jobs within five years was unrealistic. Podger explained that natural attrition might reduce about 4,000 jobs per year in Canberra, which would take a long time to meet the target. Voluntary redundancies could speed things up but would cost money upfront, delaying any savings in the short term.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese said limiting job cuts to Canberra would make it impossible to protect frontline and security roles. He criticized Dutton's plan, saying it showed the Coalition was not ready to govern.

Albanese also noted that important agencies like Services Australia and national security organizations, including ASIO and the Australian Signals Directorate, were based in Canberra.

Frontline job cuts unclear

More than half of the public servants who left last year worked in frontline roles, but the Coalition has not clearly defined what counts as frontline.

By June 30, 2024, only about 37% of the public service workforce was based in Canberra, with many others working across the states and territories.