When Labor took office, veterans seeking support after serving their country faced an unthinkable situation - a backlog of 42,000 claims, with some veterans waiting over two years just to have their case looked at. This was not an accident. It was the direct result of a decade of deliberate underinvestment in the public service, of staffing caps that starved frontline services, and of an ideological obsession with outsourcing.
Labor set out to fix it. Today, 97 per cent of that backlog has been cleared. Veterans' claims that once took over 100 days are now allocated within two weeks. But the lesson from this crisis is clear: when governments neglect the public service, Australians suffer. And now, the Coalition wants to take us back.
The Coalition has made its priorities clea r. They plan to cut 36,000 public service jobs, slashing the workforce by 20 per cent. This is not speculation. Nationals leader David Littleproud has said outright, "the first thing we'll do is sack those 36,000 public servants in Canberra". Shadow treasurer Angus Taylor has dismissed investment in the public service as "unnecessary spending".
But what the Coalition calls "unnecessary spending" is actually the backbone of Australia's essential services. When a baby is born, Services Australia processes parental leave and issues that first Medicare card. When a young person starts work, the Australian Taxation Office ensures they receive a tax file number. Public servants process 121 million Centrelink and Medicare claims each year. They manage aged care, regulate the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS), process passports, and protect our borders from pests and diseases. They work in law enforcement, cybersecurity, and disaster recovery. These are not excess jobs. These are people keeping the country running.
Yet, under the previous government, the public service was deliberately hollowed out. The arbitrary staffing cap forced departments to rely on a shadow workforce of 54,000 external contractors. Between 2013 and 2022, departmental spending rose by 35 per cent, but the number of public servants actually fell by 4 per cent. The result? Longer wait times, declining service standards, and vulnerable Australians left without the support they needed.
Let's look at the real consequences of these policies. At Services Australia, the staffing cap meant fewer case workers processing essential payments, leading to unresolved claims and a blowout in processing times. Pressures on the biosecurity system put Australia at risk of pest outbreaks. At Home Affairs, staffing cuts weakened the nation's ability to combat organised crime and human trafficking, as confirmed by three independent reports that found our migration system had been severely compromised.
Labor made a different choice. We lifted the staffing cap, reduced reliance on expensive consultants, and prioritised permanent, skilled public service jobs. This had a direct impact on service delivery. The average time taken to process claims for paid parental leave has dropped from 31 days to just 3. Youth allowance applications that once took 28 days now take nine. Centrelink and Medicare calls are being answered faster, reducing wait times for Australians who need support. At Services Australia alone, 3,000 additional frontline staff cleared half a million claims in just 10 weeks and answered 1.7 million customer calls that might have otherwise gone unanswered.
The Coalition's plan would undo this progress. Firing one in five public servants means fewer staff processing pensions, Medicare claims, and disaster payments. It means fewer Australian Federal Police officers stopping cyber criminals and identity fraud, fewer biosecurity officers preventing foot-and-mouth disease outbreaks, and fewer immigration officers processing skilled migration and business visas which our economy relies on.
And these cuts wouldn't just hit Canberra. Almost 63 per cent of the public service workforce is based outside the capital, including nearly 23,000 employees in regional Australia. If 36,000 jobs are cut, at least 22,700 of those would be lost in state capitals and regional centres-damaging local economies and stripping essential services from communities.
The idea that we can run a modern, growing nation with a public service frozen at 2006 levels is simply absurd. Australia has grown by 6 million people since then. Services have expanded, threats have changed, and the demands on government have only increased. The NDIS did not exist 20 years ago, yet today it supports over 500,000 Australians with disabilities. Australia's clean energy transition requires public servants to oversee the grid's stability and manage renewable energy projects. Defence projects have grown in complexity, requiring highly skilled public servants to manage multibillion-dollar procurements.
Yet the Coalition pretends that government can deliver these expanded services, policy responses, and regulatory oversight with a public service smaller than it was two decades ago. It is a fantasy. Cutting 36,000 public servants does not remove the need for the work they do - it simply pushes it into the hands of private consultants, at a higher cost to taxpayers and with less transparency.
We saw the ultimate example of this flawed thinking with robodebt , where previous Coalition governments replaced skilled public servants with an automated debt-recovery scheme that unlawfully hounded innocent Australians, leading to financial hardship, mental health crises, and even suicides. It was sold as a cost-saving measure but ended up costing taxpayers at least $1.8 billion in compensation and legal costs.
This election is a choice. Do we invest in a public service that can meet the challenges of today and tomorrow? Or do we let right-wing ideologues weaken institutions that keep Australia running? If you want government that works, don't backtrack with Dutton.
- Andrew Leigh is the Assistant Minister for Competition, Charities, Treasury and Employment and his website is andrewleigh.com.
