Government Will Not Cut Public Service to Fund Election Pledges: Australian PM

Prime Minister Scott Morrison speaks at the Australia-Israel Chamber of Commerce (AICC) address at Crown Casino in Melbourne, Australia, on May 18, 2022. (Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has said that the Coalition would not slash essential public services to fund its election commitments.

The centre-right Coalition released its policy costings on May 17, which specified that government departments would be subject to an “efficiency dividend,” or annual budget reduction of two percent in the next three years and 1.5 percent in the 2025-2026 financial year.

“If our senior public servants ... can’t find $2.7 billion (US$1.61 billion) out of a budget of $327.3 billion, well, I’ve got a lot more confidence in them that they can achieve that,” Morrison told reporters in Darwin on May 17.

“It doesn’t impact on programs or services at all, never has ... We’re very transparent.”

Meanwhile, the centre-left Labor party will release its costings and savings on May 19.

“We have a couple more announcements to go. We have until Saturday, but we will be releasing our costings announcement on Thursday,” Labor leader Anthony Albanese told reporters in Perth.

The Coalition’s costings showed that its promised 35 election pledges would come in at $2.3 billion.

In addition, the Coalition’s plan promised to boost the federal budget bottom line by an additional $1 billion over the next four years compared to what was outlined in the 2022-2023 budget.

Labor Leader Anthony Albanese speaks at National Press Club in Canberra, Australia, on May 18, 2022. (Lisa Maree Williams/Getty Images)

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham promised that the Coalition’s efficiency dividend would not impact essential services and said government departments would need to determine which areas among accommodation, technology, contractors, and staffing arrangements need to be cut.

Meanwhile, Treasurer Josh Frydenberg criticised the opposition for the slow release of its policy costings calling on opposition leader Anthony Albanese to “fess up.”

His counterpart, Shadow Treasurer Jim Chalmers said all of Labor’s election commitments were calculated and the party had been working with the Parliamentary Budget Office.

“We need to flick the switch to quality (spending),” he told reporters in southern Queensland. “We will begin that task, whether it’s trimming outsourcing, whether it’s multinational tax reform, whether it’s an audit of the government’s rorts, waste, and mismanagement.”

In its latest election commitment, the Labor opposition announced that it would establish a $1.5 billion medical manufacturing fund as part of a $15 billion scheme to enhance Australia’s medical supply chains, including vaccine production.

Albanese pledged that if Labor won the May 21 election, he would push for a medical manufacturing industry plan to specify how local businesses can obtain government contracts.

“This is my vision for the country, a vision in which we make more things here, a vision in which we skill up Australians, a vision in which we’re less vulnerable at the end of the global supply chains,” he said.