The Canberra Times is today reporting (here and here) about massive changes flagged in the Commission of Audit, which has recommended that whole agencies be abolished, privatised, or devolved to the states, in what would be “the biggest reworking of the federation ever undertaken”.
According to one article, the public service employment ballooned in the decade from 2003, growing at twice the rate of mining employment:
In the 10 years through June 2013, 375,000 public sector workers were taken on compared with 173,200 mining workers…
Even as the mining boom boosted growth and tax receipts, the ballooning government wages bill added to strains on the budget and helped push sovereign debt to a record $318 billion…
Cutting back is now a priority for a government seeking budget savings.
Among the Commission of Audit’s 86 recommendations is reportedly “calls for the axing of multiple agencies and the surrender of huge swathes of responsibility back to the states in education, health, and other services”.
Certainly, a brief look at “Public administration and safety” employment in the ABS quarterly employment statistics – a proxy for the federal and state bureaucracies -shows that public sector employment levels have surged relative to population since the early 2000s, suggesting there is indeed room to cut:
Having worked as an economist in both the federal and Victorian bureaucracies, my personal view is that Australia has too many public sector agencies and too much duplication across federal and state levels, and there is significant scope to streamline operations and trim back office staff without adversely affecting (or even expanding) front-line service delivery (e.g. nurses, teachers, social workers, etc).
What do you think? Is the public service in Australia too big, requiring trimming? Or would such actions adversely affect the delivery of essential services?
