'Slash and burn': Gallagher fires back at Coalition over APS jobs

The Public Service Minister was responding to an interview published by this masthead, with the Coalition's new spokesperson for government waste reduction, James Stevens.

Opposition Leader Peter Dutton and Mr Stevens have raised questions about the significant boost of 10,000 public service places in the May 2023 budget, linking it to wasteful spending.

Mr Stevens insisted the jobs are not being earmarked for future cuts, but did call for the Albanese government to explain why the growth happened.

The public service minister - who is also a senator for the ACT - and finance minister fiercely defended the increase.

"It's always the area where, particularly the Liberal Party think that they can slash and burn and, you know, I've just spent ... nearly two years trying to deal with the decimated public service that we inherited," she told ABC Canberra.

"And putting it on a much more sustainable footing."

The 10,000 roles represent an increase to average staffing level, a figure that represents the average number of full-time equivalent staff.

Nearly a third of those roles had been converted from labour hire and contractor arrangements.

Labor committed to reducing the public sector's reliance on external providers - including contractors, consultants and labour hire - ahead of the 2022 election.

It says it is focused on bringing more work back in-house, pointing to an audit which revealed the Morrison government had spent $20.8 billion on an external workforce in the 2021-22 financial year.

Capability has been a topic for public service leaders in the fallout from the unlawful robodebt scheme and scandals around consultancies, including the alleged PricewaterhouseCoopers tax leak.

"I think the comments that I've seen in the media today show that, you know, the former government, the Coalition haven't learned anything about why you need a public service and why you need to make sure it's adequately resourced," Senator Gallagher said.

"But you have to constantly drive efficiencies as well, and we're doing both of those things."

The Albanese government is not expected to increase public service roles significantly in its May 2024 budget. Senator Gallagher and Assistant Minister Patrick Gorman have both indicated this.

The actual headcount of the service in June 2023 was 170,332, up from 159,291 in 2022.