Jacinta Nampijinpa Price: Peter Dutton’s government efficiency chief to follow Margaret Thatcher’s lead more than Elon Musk’s

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says she will follow the principles of Margaret Thatcher in helping the Coalition give ‘power back to the people by implementing small government’.

Senator Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says she will cut unnecessary spending in her new role for the Coalition should it win government. Picture: Brett Phibbs

Jacinta Nampijinpa Price says she will follow the principles of Margaret Thatcher in helping the Coalition give “power back to the people by implementing small government”, but is talking down the prospect of sweeping public service cuts despite condemning its “exponential growth” under the Albanese government.

In an interview with The Weekend Australian, the Coalition’s new spokeswoman for government efficiency said a Dutton government “won’t be cutting” the public service workforce but would “halt” any further growth.

She later clarified in a written statement that a Dutton government would look to make “sensible reductions” to the number of federal bureaucrats, which has grown by 36,000 – or 20 per cent -under Labor.

“We will be looking to sensibly consolidate the public service, with a focus on protecting essential services but making sensible reductions where there is duplication or excess capacity,” she said in a statement.

The Coalition’s drive to control the public service boom came as the government’s December financial statements showed the budget deficit for the financial year to December 31 was $20.7bn.

While it is a more than $6bn improvement on Jim Chalmers’ mid-year fiscal update in December, the number will likely dampen the government's remote hopes remote of a third surplus.

Government spending grew by 6.7 per cent in the past 12 months, compared to a 3.6 per cent lift in revenue, according to economist Chris Richardson.

The new budget figures were revealed amid speculation Anthony Albanese will call an election for April and avoid a budget before voters decide whether to give him a second term.

Senator Price’s approach to controlling government spending appears more restrained than Elon Musk, who is expected to purge significant parts of the public service as head of Donald Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency.

Elon Musk has been tasked by Donald Trump with cutting costs in the US. Picture: AFP

While the US President is vowing to sack any federal bureaucrat who does not work from the office, Senator Price would only go as far as signalling a review of working-from-home arrangements for the public service.

The Australian revealed on Friday more than 20 per cent of employees in some departments work from home three days a week or more.

“I’ll be having these sorts of conversations with my colleagues around the shadow cabinet table as to the effectiveness of working at home versus working in the ­office,” she said.

“We’ve always got to keep in mind whether it’s value for money spent, and that’s something we will be considering.

“Trump will do what Trump does. We will govern Australia the best way for Australians.”

As the opposition sets up the booming public service as a key election issue, Peter Dutton on Friday also said Australians’ lives were “worse off” because of Labor’s mass hiring of bureaucrats and the ALP claim of creating 1.1 million jobs was “hollow”.

“I have not met an Australian across the country – I was in Alice Springs over the last couple of days – who can tell me their lives are better off because the government’s employed 36,000 public servants in Canberra,” the Opposition Leader told the Menzies Research Institute in Melbourne.

“I have met people, I might say, who say their lives are worse off because of the extra bureaucratic red tape that comes with the employment of 36,000 more public servants.

“Now, positions advertised have included culture, diversity and inclusion advisers, change managers, and internal communication specialists. Such positions, as I say, do nothing to improve the lives of everyday Australians.”

Former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher is a role model for Senator Price. Picture: AP

The leader of the successful No campaign in the voice referendum declared her admiration for Thatcher, the former British conservative prime minister who cut the size of government in favour of an expanded role for the private sector.

“I admire Margaret Thatcher, as a strong female prime minister, who was about giving power back to the people by implementing small government,” she said.

“That is certainly values that we hold as conservatives in Australia, as the Coalition, and certainly they’re the sorts of inspirations we’ll draw from.”

Senator Price’s role – which she will hold on top of being Indigenous affairs spokeswoman – will see her make recommendations to other cabinet ministers in a Coalition government on how they can make savings in their portfolios, along with auditing spending programs aimed at Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Australians.

Showing the broad range of her remit, Senator Price criticised Labor’s proposed production tax credits for critical minerals and hydrogen producers, its $470m splurge on US-based company PsiQuantum and the more than $600,000 wage for former minister Bill Shorten’s speechwriter.

“We can identify across the board where there’s been ways where it could be better spent, not just within my (Indigenous affairs) portfolio,” she said.

“I will be working very closely with my shadow cabinet colleagues, a number of whom have already identified a few things to me.”

Senator Price said there was probably some waste in federal government diversity and inclusion programs, with the Prime Minister’s own department having bureaucrats dedicated to “enhancing the diversity of our workforce and embedding a culture of inclusion”.

“I don’t doubt that there is probably some waste across those areas but it will take further examination to understand what that level of waste looks like,” she said.

Senator Price said the Coalition would dump the role of Ambassador for First Nations People, a position created by the Albanese government.

“It’s just a ridiculous position in the first place, and we don’t know how that has actually improved the lives of any vulnerable Indigenous Australians,” she said.

The minister said the wages of top bureaucrats – some of who earn more than the Prime Minister – would be among a “whole raft of issues we will take into ­consideration”.

Senator Price said the efficiency portfolio was a natural extension of her work in Indigenous affairs.

“I’ve looked at my own portfolio in this way for some time now,” she said.

“How can we better spend the $35-plus billion dollars annually to improve the lives of Indigenous Australians? Do away with duplication, do away with waste, and consolidate those taxpayer dollars,” she said.

“So extending that beyond the Indigenous portfolio …(is) a natural progression.”