Govt agencies on budget chopping block
The Abbott government says the federal public service has become way too big and wasteful, as it prepares to take the budget axe to dozens of agencies.
The coalition is tipped to scrap or merge up to 36 federal agencies, in addition to about 40 already marked for closure, to save $470 million over the next four years.
The Australian Renewable Energy Agency and the National Water Commission are among those expected to be abolished.
The National Gallery and National Library will be forced to merge their backroom administrations.
The Royal Australian Mint, Defence Housing Australia and Australian Hearing have also been earmarked for a possible sale.
Finance Minister Mathias Cormann rejects suggestions any of the planned closures are ideologically driven.
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“Government has become way too big and way too wasteful,” he told ABC radio on the eve of Tuesday’s budget.
The government was simply assessing whether some functions could be merged or farmed out to the private sector, he said.
“There have been too many agencies responsible for the same area of government,” Senator Cormann said.
“This leads to blurred lines of accountability, it leads to uncoordinated action.
“And we think by doing what we’re proposing to do that we can make government decision-making and government service delivery more effective.”
The budget will also announce the axing of 16,000 federal public servants instead of the government’s pre-election pledge of 12,000 positions, Fairfax reported on Monday.
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The Abbott government put its 12,000 target on hold after discovering Labor had already earmarked 14,500 redundancies.
Cormann would not confirm numbers.
“But there will be a further reduction in the size of the public service over the forward estimates,” he said.
Labor frontbencher Penny Wong raised concerns about the private sector’s ability to fill the void left by the axings.
She noted Australian Hearing delivered services to remote indigenous communities.
“I don’t know how the private sector are going to be capable of replicating that service,” Wong told ABC radio.
Labor leader Bill Shorten again said measures such as a deficit levy or GP co-payment would break an election pledge not to introduce new taxes.
“Broken promises shouldn’t be rewarded,” he told reporters in Canberra.
“The Abbott government should not be slugging the vulnerable, the sick, the elderly, people who are battling to make ends meet.”
ACTU president Ged Kearney questioned the motive behind plans to streamline the public service.
“It really is a government that is ideologically driven to shrinking the size of government,” she told reporters in Canberra.
Eventually, it could get to the point where there were very few services offered by the commonwealth, she said.
