Now the Coalition is out of government and doesn't have to work too closely with the public service, it apparently feels more freedom to make political hay out of the bureaucracy.
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Peter Dutton has been leading the charge in the Coalition's post-budget attack on Labor's plans to grow the public service, telling ABC News Breakfast the federal government would employ 20,000 more bureaucrats in Canberra. He also made the claim in his budget reply speech. His treasury spokesman Angus Taylor has made similar statements.
Where did the Coalition get that 20,000 number from? We asked Mr Taylor's office but received no answer by deadline.
It doesn't stack up with budget papers last month that showed the Albanese government would employ 8000 more public servants this financial year. Finance Minister Katy Gallagher has indicated probably one-third of them will be in Canberra. So Mr Dutton appears only a meagre 17,334 public servants out in his count.
Here's a number that might be helpful for the Coalition too. In the last year of the Morrison government, it grew the public service by 6000 staff. If the opposition thinks attacking the public service will win it back those inner-city seats from the teals, it may want to keep that in mind.
The Lion, the Witch and the Electoral Commissioner
No-one likes receiving a robocall. It's the sort of election campaign tactic that turns people off politics. Turns out, the Australian Electoral Commission boss has strong feelings about them too.
Senators questioned Tom Rogers on Thursday about the agency's finding that Advance Australia had not made robocalls about then-Senate candidate David Pocock before the May election. Mr Rogers was also asked whether any changes to legislation were needed to deal with robocalls.
The commissioner went on a self-described rant, requesting leave to plant his soapbox firmly in a parallel world accessible via a wardrobe in World War II-era England.
"I wish, just living in Narnia for a moment, that candidates and parties didn't indulge in this sort of behaviour. If they didn't do it, we wouldn't need legislation. Quite frankly, it's ridiculous," Mr Rogers said.
"I don't know why people do it. Whenever it occurs from whatever party, major or minor, we get inundated with complaints."
Sadly, the death of the robocall is about as likely as White Witches, talking beavers and flying lions.
Chaser's war on transparency
Long after waging their war on everything, The Chaser team has returned to fight against the real enemy of the people - transparency.
Integrity was all the rage during the pre- and post-election periods, but the controversial jokesters launched their submission railing against it to a parliamentary inquiry into the 2022 campaign. In it, they outline their worries that lifting the integrity bar too high will mean many politicians will instead be forced out of Canberra and back into general society.
"Transparency will only hurt our country. If people got to see the deals our politicians make with donors, all trust in the political system would be lost entirely," the submission read.
"Please protect voters from seeing how the corrupt sausage is made and save us from the vomiting that would occur thanks to that knowledge."
Truth in political advertising? No! Caps on political donors? The horror!
Instead, they propose a "transparency credits" system allowing political donors to offset their lack of transparency by paying politicians in other, poorer countries to be more transparent. After all, it's for Australia's sake, they say.
Showered with praise
As recruiting enters its last dash for 2022, there's a lot of talk right now about the best way to begin a public service career. The perennial question though is: Which department is a good place to work?
The Attorney-General's Department, for one, receives glowing endorsements for its office building, which apparently has excellent end-of-trip facilities and laundered towels to stop the change rooms stinking like a football team's locker room.
Much better, says one punter online, than the then-Department of Education, Skills and Employment's offices on Mort Street, where they said the showers resembled something from the first Saw film.
Contractors are coming to collect as ATO zeroes in on debt
The Australian Taxation Office reported last week that Australians owe $45 billion in unpaid taxes.
Now the economy has emerged from the shadow of COVID lockdowns, and Labor is fretting over deficits that stretch to the horizon, the ATO is planning to ramp up its debt collection.
It dialled down its work chasing tax debts as businesses and households teetered during the pandemic.
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Now it's turning to external debt collection agencies to claw back some of the outstanding dues. ATO staff were told late last month that the contractors will start in November.
For an idea of the cost involved, the agency spent about $124 million on external debt collection services in the decade before COVID.
Of course, Labor says it's all about cutting back on contractor spending, especially in the new age of fiscal restraint. Except when it's trying to pay down a deficit, maybe.
Waugh against shouters
Few people outside Canberra probably know there is such a thing as a Merit Protection Commissioner. But the role exists, and as those who have dealt with the office may have learnt, it's pretty important. It's a watchdog for unfair or wrong decisions affecting public servants, like cronyism in job promotions.
The commissioner also deals with some unsavoury situations in the public service, as the office's annual report this year detailed.
It mentions a case where a public servant was found to have breached the code of conduct by shouting at their colleague on several occasions about their poor performance, within earshot of other staff. In a review of the decision, witnesses told the commissioner the shouting was so loud they "actively avoided the office space where the employee worked". The commissioner affirmed the original decision.
The annual report will be Linda Waugh's last as Merit Protection Commissioner, a role she started in 2018. She starts her new job as Queensland Integrity Commissioner next month for a five-year term.
Over to you
How do you rate your agency's end-of-trip facilities? Are there any signs of cutbacks on contractor spending at your departments?