Coalition has public service 'waste' in sight

Peter Dutton spelled out his agenda on Tuesday, when he appointed an assistant spokesperson to the role of "government waste reduction", specifically citing a boost of 10,000 federal public service roles in the last budget.

It was a move he foreshadowed in early February, as he fronted the media to respond to Labor's overhaul of the stage three tax cuts.

"There are savings that we can identify from government waste," Mr Dutton said.

"In administered programs for example, leaving the program funding intact to one side, the government's spending about $92 billion a year. They've increased by 10,000, the number of public servants here in Canberra.

"There are ways in which you can provide some savings, and that's work that we need to continue."

The Opposition Leader might not have detailed out what he plans to do about those 10,000 roles - South Australian MP James Stevens could have more to say about that down the road - but it's clear how he characterises them.

Wasteful spending is a key talking point for any opposition travelling towards an election, and targeting the bureaucracy as an elite, out-of-touch and bloated service, is tried and tested.

Mr Dutton trialled similar messaging during the Voice to Parliament campaign, often referring to the advisory body as a "Canberra Voice", which would "require thousands of public servants".

It's also true that while there are 65,000 public servants "here in Canberra", there are around 105,000 more spread across the country - including more than 21,000 in Queensland.

Still his warning of another layer of bureaucracy enclosing the Canberra bubble, appears to have landed, given the outcome of the referendum.

The Opposition Leader is ready to scale up this rhetoric - that taxpayer funds are being funnelled into Canberra jobs, with no pay off.

His plan will be complicated by the fact that the Morrison government spent $20.8 billion on external labour in one financial year, likely trying to patch capability gaps in the public service.

Procurement was considered a way to get around caps introduced by the Abbott government - which tied average staffing numbers to 2007 levels.

The Coalition is also banking on Australians feeling far removed from the bureaucracy, but after the horrors of the robodebt scheme, and spectacular integrity failures by big four consulting firms, many feel closer than ever.

In the midst of a cost-of-living crisis, many will no doubt agree that their taxes could be better spent elsewhere.

But these same people deserve to understand how the Coalition would cut "wasteful" spending without increasing wait times at Centrelink, sending the consultants bill through the roof, and cutting corners on policy.