The budget's 'hidden' public service job cuts

By Markus Mannheim
Updated April 23 2018 - 11:33pm, first published May 30 2015 - 3:27pm

Few voters outside Canberra have reason to think about how many staff the government employs. But the matter pops up occasionally when politicians vie to be seen as more frugal than their rivals. In the 2013 federal election, the size of the bureaucracy became a significant campaign issue. The Coalition pledged to shed 12,000 jobs; Labor opposed that, though it had itself been slowly reducing the government workforce.

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