History never repeats but it sure does rhyme.
Upon being elected in March 1996, the Howard Government commenced a program of cutting spending and jobs across public sector agencies, only to then hire an army of consultants and contractors.
The grand irony from the Howard Government experience was that many of the contractors were the same former public servants that had received generous redundancy payouts and then were paid much more to do the same job.
It was nice work if you could get it. Not so nice for taxpayers, though.
A similar process has played out since the Coalition was elected in 2013. Former Prime Minister Tony Abbott pledged to slash 12,000 jobs from the Australian Public Service (APS), but as of January 2018, 14,000 jobs had been cut.
Meanwhile, last year it was revealed that Australia’s top bureaucrats were awarded large pay rises and that public service wages are growing the fastest at senior levels at the same time as those at lower levels are experiencing record low wages growth.
And while senior bureaucrats are making out like bandits, consultants are also cashing in, with billions in taxpayer funds flowing to consultancy firms, especially the Big Four accounting firms. Worse the Turnbull Government recently implemented new bargaining rules for public servants, which capped rank-and-file pay growth at 2% while also protecting consultants’ lucrative contracts.
Earlier this month, The Mandarin reported that the Turnbull Government’s latest review into the APS risks repeating more of the same mistakes:
Malcolm Turnbull’s wide-ranging review into the Australian Public Service hasn’t even started yet, but it’s already taking criticism.
The Community and Public Sector Union is concerned that the make-up of the review panel suggests we’re going to see recommendations in line with “neoliberal orthodoxy”.
“A clear-eyed and objective look at the Australian Public Service is clearly needed, but we have real concerns that this review will be subservient to neoliberal orthodoxy and the bizarre and damaging policies the Turnbull government has imposed in pursuit of that extreme ideology,” said CPSU National Secretary Nadine Flood.
“This review must be a catalyst to repair the ongoing damage that’s been inflicted by the Turnbull government on public services, regulatory and policy capability, rather than a licence to double-down on those flawed policies.
“Just one example is their whacky policy that the Australian Public Service must be smaller than when John Howard lost office, with an average staffing level cap driving expensive and damaging contracting out and privatisation”…
“The panel chosen to oversee this review is not an encouraging start, given it includes only one person who has worked in the Australian Public Service while four of the six participants have backgrounds serving multinational corporations,” Flood said…
This is another reflection of the Australian economy. Senior bureaucrats, politicians, consultants and senior executives in the private sector are receiving strong increases in their already exorbitant pay, whereas ordinary workers’ conditions are being neutered. And this situation is being actively encouraged by the Turnbull Government, be it via the above, its company tax cut agenda, or its mass immigration policy.
