Michelle Rowland (Greenway, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Communications) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Prime Minister. Can the Prime Minister confirm that today he sacked five departmental secretaries that kept the disgraced Minister for Energy and Emissions Reduction in his job?

Scott Morrison (Cook, Liberal Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I'm happy to address the first part of that question. The second part of that question, again, just contained another ugly smear from the opposition. This is what they have done all day. Today they have shown themselves to be an angry rabble. They have remained angry since 18 May, and the people they're most angry at are the Australian people, because the Australian people rejected them at the last election for their higher taxes, their soft policies on border protection and their lack of faith in the Australian people to get on and keep more of what they earn.

What I did today, in announcing a restructure of the Australian Public Service, is to make sure the Public Service are focused on Australians, that they are focused and have a clear line of sight between the work they do and the needs of Australians on the ground. It is true: I reduced the number of departments from 18 down to 14. It was, in fact, Bob Hawke who did something similar when he also knew that the Public Service had to be more focused on the delivery of services to the Australian people. They're the sorts of reforms this country needs, because I respect and value the excellent work of our Public Service. I want to give them the right structure that enables them to deliver on the services that are needed right across this country. Whether it's providing services in the drought—and the minister has just outlined the outstanding work of the North Queensland Livestock Industry Recovery Agency, which will now be given a broader charter and responsibility in the recovery and assisting farmers and rural communities through the drought.

The other thing we've done is we've connected education, skills and employment, so we have whole-of-life training, whole-of-life education and understanding that the equipping we give to people in this country, of whatever age, through our education or vocational or in-work training system is all designed to get them into a job and keep them in a job at whatever age they're at. And we're ensuring that our communications are linked with our infrastructure program, and particularly ensure that it's connected to our regional development agenda. We're ensuring that our Department of Human Services, as it was formerly known, is part of the broader Social Services portfolio and, through the work of the Minister for Government Services, that we can get those services to people on the ground.

It's important that we have a public service that is supported by the government to get the job done. That's why I took the decisions I took today. I expect our government to work for the Australian people—and we do—and I'm ensuring the Australian Public Service is lean and mean and focused on the job of delivering for Australians.