Election thumping shows APS can't go backwards now
Opinion piece by Melissa Donnelly, National Secretary Community and Public Sector Union
When he formulated a plan to cut 36,000 jobs from the public service, Peter Dutton thought he'd picked the perfect punching bag.
A workforce of people who couldn't talk back, who couldn't defend themselves, and who couldn't tell the story of the critical work they do in our cities and towns, and in all the far-reaching corners of this country.
He even upped his attacks midway through the campaign to 41,000 - who'd care, right? Cheap jibes about Canberra ensued, and the Coalition targeted public sector workers with put-downs and insults.
But it turns out, a lot of people cared. And they cared because public services matter.
Australians want to be able to get their paid parental leave claim processed. They want their Medicare rebates, and affordable medicines.
They want the Aged Care Regulator to be strong and able to protect the elderly, and for biosecurity officers to be able to stop devastating outbreaks of diseases, pests and weeds. They want families accessing the NDIS to be supported on that journey and for NDIS fraud to be stopped by the regulator.
It turns out that public servants didn't need to shout about the importance of their jobs, because their ongoing service to the Australian community had already done the talking.
It was also helpful that a Coalition government in charge of their public services wasn't something Australians had to imagine - it was something they still remembered.
People still remembered robodebt and the heartbreaking damage it caused.
They remembered the backlog of 42,000 claims in the Department of Veterans' Affairs (DVA), and the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide, which found that the Coalition government had failed veterans by not adequately resourcing DVA.
And now they were seeing members of that same party propose cuts to those same services and voters didn't want a bar of it.
People also remembered the billions wasted on outsourcing and the damage it left behind.
It just wasn't that long ago that it was revealed the army of consultants and contractors that had infiltrated the public service. And were paid $21 billion (in the final year of the Morrison government alone!) to run things into the ground.
Undoing this damage and removing their still deeply entrenched presence in agencies and departments across the APS is something the CPSU will be continuing to prioritise in this current term of parliament.
But Peter Dutton and the Coalition didn't just come for the jobs of public servants, they also came for their workplace rights when they announced that they'd be ending working from home for all federal public sector workers.
The brutal backlash across the country clearly came as a shock to the Coalition.
And it wasn't just workers in the public sector who were worried, workers in the private sector have seen time and time again workplace policies and rights flow from the public sector to the private sector.
The agenda was obvious, and Australians around the country saw it for what it was - a shameless and absurdly out of touch push from the bosses who bankroll the Liberals to wind back flexible work rights.
Straight off the back of this attack on working from home, a cyclone had south-east Queensland and northern NSW in its sights. Ironically, requiring a lot of people to work from home. Not Peter Dutton though.
As the cyclone's impact was being increasingly felt, Peter Dutton fled his home state of Queensland to a Liberal Party fundraiser in Sydney.
Do you know who didn't flee? The public service.
The public service mobilised in the way it always does when there is any sort of crisis in our country.
The National Emergency Management Agency (NEMA) was co-ordinating the response from the get-go.
The ABC was keeping communities informed and aware of what was happening. The Bureau of Meteorology was providing weather forecasting to help people and emergency services prepare and respond accordingly. And in the wake of the cyclone when the damage is done and everyone moves on, Services Australia shows up to support impacted people, families and communities in the recovery process.
It shouldn't have to be said, but the ability of the public service to do that critical work shouldn't depend on who is in government.
The resourcing that exists in the APS right now, should be accepted by both sides of politics as the baseline. This isn't a radical suggestion. In fact, the APS right now is smaller as a proportion of the Australian population than it was at the end of the Howard government.
As we continue to weed out costly consultants and contractors, increases in staff to replace them will be needed and that should be supported by the parliament.
As the dust settles on the outcome of the federal election, a key lesson is that Australians do not support public sector cuts, and they will vote to protect and defend them.
The Coalition tried to make an enemy out of people who support Australians, who keep Australians safe at home and abroad, and who are there for communities and families in times of crisis. But they ultimately failed to do so, and now we have the opportunity to continue the job of building APS capacity and capability.
This opinion piece was first published in The Canberra Times on 22nd May 2025.
