This Month
AFR readers park US travel plans in wake of Trump policies
Readers of The Australian Financial Review are turning off travel to the US due to the Trump administration’s approach to border control and diversity issues.
March
Dutton’s savings from public service cuts are ‘illusory’
Readers’ letters on plans to slash government worker numbers, the power of independents, Medicare’s limits, climate wars, gas reservation, defence spending, and Qantas luggage bins.
Kennedy to slash 10,000 jobs in US health overhaul
Cuts include 3500 at the Food and Drug Administration, 2400 at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, and 1200 at the National Institutes of Health.
Labor gives bureaucrats 11.2pc pay rise, but that’s not the scary part
Labor has still put aside almost no money for rising public sector wages, even though hiring is booming and public servants will get a big income boost.
Stop the bloat: Coalition pushed to go harder on public service cuts
The Coalition should implement an immediate public service hiring freeze and launch a bureaucracy-wide audit to root out wasteful spending, according to a new plan.
Accenture warns that Musk-DOGE cost cuts are hurting sales
The Department of Government Efficiency has taken aim at consulting deals as an example of what the administration deems wasteful spending.
How to get the budget back in shape item by item
Before DOGE was even a thing, I ran a similar operation for the NSW Coalition. Here are the three lessons I learnt.
Dutton softens pledge to ban WFH after anti-woman criticism
Opposition Leader Peter Dutton now says he would like pre-COVID rates of remote work, after saying he wanted public servants back in the office five days a week.
The only question now is how Trump gets rid of Musk
Having given the billionaire more power than any private figure in US history, the president is watching his benefactor turn into an albatross.
Agency with half staff at home says it’s ‘saving taxpayer money’
The Office of the Australian Information Commissioner, where 50 per cent of staff work remotely, says its people strategy is a smart one.
The agencies where one in five public servants never come to work
Half the public servants employed at Australia’s national regulator for privacy and freedom of information never work from the office.
Coalition’s Jane Hume was once a flexible work cheerleader
It’s not even three years since the senator was once citing flexible work as core to women’s economic security.
Top bureaucrats say work-from-home has gone too far
Former Treasury boss John Fraser and former NDIA head Martin Hoffman say public servants need to be in the office regularly to collaborate.
Public servants back in office five days a week under the Coalition
There are many talented, driven people in the Australian Public Service. And if elected, I want them to come back to the office with me.
Coalition to force public servants to return to the office
Opposition frontbencher Jane Hume says working from home has become unsustainable, with a Dutton government to force public servants to the office five days per week.
February
Milton Friedman warned about budget problems such as Musk and DOGE
Special interest groups have always been a headache for government deficits and efficiency. Now they are running Washington.
Public servants must have independence to give fearless advice
The normalisation of political appointments to top bureaucratic jobs has resulted in public servants becoming more timid about providing robust advice to governments.
Richardson slams Treasury misuse over lunch deduction costings
The department secretary has become embroiled in a row after Jim Chalmers asked Treasury to cost the Coalition’s tax break for small business lunches.
January
Unrealistic public sector pay claims risk an inflation budget hangover
The wage demands at the tail end of the inflation-cycle will add to the fiscal pressure on state government’s already deep in debt and deficit.
With a $7.4b black hole, Gallagher tries to explain the unexplainable
Budgeting no money for public servant wage rises may have made sense under a stingy Coalition, but it makes no sense under a Labor government hiring like mad.