Labor ‘to spend $1bn on Trojan reviews’: Simon Birmingham

Up to 20 per cent of Labor’s $5bn in budget improvements could be funnelled into 43 reviews and 15 new public service agencies, Simon Birmingham says.

Simon Birmingham says ‘Anthony Albanese wants to hit the ground reviewing and it’s the Australian people who will pay for it’. Picture: Gary Ramage

Finance Minister Simon Birmingham has warned that 20 per cent of Labor’s $5bn in budget improvements could be funnelled into 43 reviews and 15 new public service agencies if Anthony Albanese wins the May 21 election.

After Labor this week committed to establishing a new defence agency and an audit of budget waste and white paper on the labour market, Senator Birmingham accused the Opposition Leader of using reviews as a “Trojan horse for Labor’s $302bn of vague spending plans”. With Labor running a small-target election strategy, the Coalition has waded through Mr Albanese’s policies and pledges made in last year’s ALP national platform to frame the Labor leader as a “throwback to Kevin Rudd”.

“Anthony Albanese wants to hit the ground reviewing and it’s the Australian people who will pay for it,” Senator Birmingham told The Australian.

“In a repeat of the failed Kevin Rudd approach, Mr Albanese would start off pretending to govern by spending more than $1bn on 43 reviews and 15 new public service agencies.”

Senator Birmingham’s claims of “sham reviews that will lead to big spending” comes after previous criticism from Labor and Liberal figures about the number of Morrison government reviews. Following the 2019 election, The Australian revealed the federal government had commissioned and endorsed 72 ­reviews and inquiries in one year.

 

Senior Labor sources said the ALP platform was separate to ­official party policies and should not be misrepresented by the ­Coalition.

Opposition finance spokeswoman Katy Gallagher said “we do not accept Liberal costings of our policies or commitments”.

“After almost a decade of Liberal government, it’s unsurprising that an incoming Labor government would conduct reviews where appropriate or establish new ways of delivering services,” Senator Gallagher said.

“Labor’s policies are fully costed and our costings will be ­released in the usual way at the usual time.”

Senator Birmingham, who is overseeing Coalition campaign operations in Brisbane, said Mr Albanese’s “indecision is weak leadership at its worst”.

“Calling for reviews and creating a bigger public service is not how you address the serious challenges of government,” he said.

Releasing Labor’s economic plan and budget strategy on Wednesday, Senator Gallagher pledged to abolish the Coalition’s arbitrary staffing cap and invest almost $500m under a first-phase “strategic reinvestment” in the Australian Public Service. “We are … reinvesting just short of $500m back in to internal capability within the APS. We see that as being an important part of ­reducing our reliance on labour hire and contracting arrangements and rebuilding internal capability in the APS, which has been eroded so much,” she said.

Coalition analysis claims that costs for reviews, inquiries and white papers could reach $123.5m. They include reviews of Infrastructure Australia, the NDIS, Indigenous art code, consent education, Defence posture and the Reserve Bank of Australia.

The Coalition said “Labor’s new public service offices, agencies or entities” would cost taxpayers $986m.

The list of public service bodies include a national anti-corruption commission, which is already funded in the budget, national water commission, housing future fund, national reconstruction fund, rewiring the nation corporation, Australian centre for disease control and office for youth.

Labor’s economic plan and budget strategy includes a $1.89bn four-year multinational tax crackdown and promises to slash $3bn over the forward estimates and reduce spending on consultants, contractors and ­labour hire by 10 per cent in Jim Chalmers’ first budget.

“We will abolish the arbitrary staffing cap which has eroded public sector capability, reduced job security and wasted taxpayer funds,” the plan said.

“Labor’s plan includes a strategic reinvestment of nearly half a billion dollars as part of the first phase of rebuilding capability in the public service – including 1080 new secure frontline service delivery jobs at Services Australia, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the National Disability Insurance Scheme.

“Our plan will not only meaningfully trim spending but also strengthen the capability of our public service.”

Labor blames the “explosive growth” on external labour and outsourcing on the Coalition’s staffing cap policy, which had “distorted staffing decisions by agencies for years, promoting a reflexive and expensive reliance on private external labour in order to circumvent the cap”.