Eric Abetz (Tasmania, Liberal Party, Minister for Employment) Share this | Hansard source

I thank Senator Seselja for his question and acknowledge his commitment to the people of the ACT, including amongst them the many Australian public servants. That is, of course, in contradistinction to the Leader of the Opposition, Labor representatives and Senator Lundy, who have been disingenuously making claims to the effect that the coalition has been wreaking havoc on the Public Service with job cuts.

These dishonest claims have been debunked by the Secretary of the Department of Finance who confirmed at Senate estimates that Labor's money shuffling, implicit in the 2013 Pre-Election Economic and Fiscal Outlook, would result in a reduction in the size of the Public Service by 14,500—something deliberately hidden from the Australian people and the Australian Public Service by the Australian Labor Party. At the same time as they were hiding these figures they were duplicitously accusing us of cutting the Public Service. We were honest. We said there would be 12,000 by natural attrition and the Labor Party attacked us for that policy whilst at all times they knew, and must have known, that they had a hidden agenda of 14,500 cuts. There has been further information that comes from the Public Service Commissioner himself. He said in the State of the Service report released earlier this week:

The forward estimates of the previous government contained considerable downward pressure on Public Service numbers partly because of the accumulating impact of efficiency dividends, additional efficiency dividend and similar measures.