Peter Dutton has taken aim at the federal public service’s “culture, diversity and inclusion” workforce, saying such “advisers” to the bureaucracy do nothing to improve the lives of everyday Australians.
In a major policy speech delivered to the Liberal Party’s Menzies Research Centre in Sydney on Friday, the opposition leader vowed to “scale back” Canberra’s public service, insisting the economy performs better with fewer bureaucrats.
“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,” Mr Dutton said.
“Positions advertised have included culture, diversity and inclusion advisers, change managers, and internal communications specialist.
“Such positions, as I say, do nothing to improve the lives of everyday Australians.
“They’re certainly not frontline service delivery roles that can make a difference to people’s lives.”
Mr Dutton’s incendiary speech — his first major statement of the year — sets up a direct clash and contrast to Anthony Albanese who is campaigning for re-election by celebrating Labor’s efforts to expand the nation’s “care economy” and boost services to the elderly, families with young children, and people with disabilities.
In addition the opposition leader’s promise to dismantle the role of “culture, diversity and inclusion” advisers seeks to mirror Donald Trump’s successful political campaign in last year’s US presidential race when he took aim at what are known in the US as diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives.
Among his first acts as president, Mr Trump this month signed executive orders barring transgender people from enlisting in the military and removing DEI hires from across the US federal government.
Donald Trump has taken aim at diversity initiatives in American workplaces. (Reuters: Elizabeth Frantz)
Describing the federal bureaucracy’s growth under Labor as a “completely unsustainable economic situation”, Mr Dutton said he would deploy newly appointed shadow for government efficiency Jacinta Price to help “scale back the Canberra public service in a responsible way”.
Senator Price has also vowed to review funding for Welcome to Country ceremonies.
Mr Dutton suggested the economy performs better with fewer bureaucrats, saying the federal government is drawing workers in a tight labour market away from the “most productive” parts of the economy to the least productive.
“There’s a correlation between the periods of the most significant economic growth and productivity gains — usually under Coalition governments — and an efficient public service.
“Whereas when the public service becomes bloated and inefficient — as Labor has done in Victoria over the last decade — the economy is brought to its knees”.
Mr Dutton said one of his top priorities would be to “curtail Canberra’s centralised interference”, claiming the National Disability Insurance Scheme as an example of where “there has been withdrawal of service and a complication in the way in which public policy is administered”.
While the speech also included a heavy focus on how a future Coalition government would emphasise nuclear and gas power, spur resources projects by softening environmental regulations, Mr Dutton took aim at Mr Albanese’s personal performance.
Describing the Labor government as “tired” and akin to one that has been in power for more than a decade, Mr Dutton accused the prime minister of spending the first 16 months of his term “obsessed with the Voice” and distracted from the economic decisions “needed to inoculate against obvious domestic and international inflationary pressures”.
“For a man who says that he is driven by the principle of ‘no-one held back, and no-one left behind,’ Anthony Albanese is living on a different plant.”
