Opposition Leader Angus Taylor says areas of the public service could “go immediately” if the Coalition won the next federal election. Photo: Facebook.
Canberra public servants again face the threat of the Coalition taking an axe to the public service after Opposition Leader Angus Taylor was caught telling a closed-door event in Brisbane of his plans to overhaul the government workforce and get rid of wasteful bureaucracy.
The speech to potential donors at a small-business forum had echoes of the disastrous policy that Peter Dutton took to the 2025 election, which was roundly rejected and which an internal party review found contributed to the massive Labor majority.
It also threatens to derail the ACT Senate campaign of Nick Tyrrell and undermine the Canberra Liberals leader Mark Parton’s efforts to dislodge the Barr Government.
A recording of the speech was obtained by The Canberra Times, which reported that Mr Taylor said there were areas of the public service that could “go immediately” if the Coalition won the next federal election, such as in housing and climate change.
“I’ve been fighting it all my frigging life, and I hate it with a passion … We have agencies across government right now that do not serve the Australian people the way they should. They serve themselves,” he said.
Mr Taylor accused the Albanese Government of “creeping socialism”, warning that “this is how government gets bigger and bigger and bigger”.
In response to questions, Mr Taylor said the Coalition had to take a business-like approach to government.
“The net-zero bureaucracy — gone,” Mr Taylor said. “A housing bureaucracy that’s not delivering another house … Gone. It’s going to go.”
Liberal Senate candidate Nick Tyrrell says Labor is being hypocritical about public service cuts. Photo: Michelle Kroll.
Mr Taylor said he had told “every shadow minister in every area of government” to ”rewrite your orders for every agency, whether it’s the ATO [Australian Taxation Office], whether it’s ASIC [Australian Securities and Investments Commission]”.
“The number-one thing they need to focus on is the national interest, is having an economy that works for Australians, a country that works for Australians,” he said.
“And if a bureaucrat is getting in the way of that, they shouldn’t be there. It’s that simple. This is a business-like approach to government that we desperately need.”
Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher said Mr Taylor’s attacks on the public service confirmed that the Liberals would never change when it came to undermining and politicising the independence of the public service or the party’s plans to sack thousands of government workers.
“They don’t view public servants as workers, they don’t back evidence-based public policy and they will never back Canberra,” she said. ”We know that. We have seen it at every election and the next one will be no different.”
However, Mr Tyrrell said people expected the government and its agencies to be match-fit for the challenges facing the country and the capital.
He said the public service was important to Canberra, but Canberra was more than a public service town.
“Canberrans — public servants, small-business owners, all of us — are suffering under Labor’s low-growth, high-taxing reality,” Mr Tyrrell said.
He said he already had been in to bat for Canberra — on the public service, on the CBD, on the stadium — and would continue to do so publicly and behind the scenes.
“That’s what Canberrans expect, and what they’re not getting from Senator Gallagher,” Mr Tyrrell said.
“Canberrans also deserve more than Senator Gallagher’s tired, well-worn lines and scare campaigns about the APS.
“It was Senator Gallagher and Labor that were exposed by the Independent Parliamentary Budget Office for having plans to cut 41,000 jobs to achieve a budget surplus. I think Canberrans expect answers from Senator Gallagher, not just more deflection and finger-pointing.”
Mr Parton’s office referred Region to his speech to the party’s May Federal Council in Melbourne in which he successfully moved a motion calling on the federal Liberal Party to encourage the public service to pursue excellence and integrity, and to focus on its noble mission of serving the Australian people.
He told the council then that it was easy to demonise Canberra and the public service, but an effective government needed an effective public service.
“This is the moment when you decide whether you want your party to go with either some One Nation-style, cheap political pointscoring, or to be a sensible, constructive party of government,” Mr Parton said.