The Government-elect has foreshadowed a reduction of $1.5 billion in the funding of Departments and Agencies to meet the cost of some of its promises made in the recent Federal Election.
In a statement on Budget management, former Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg and former Minister for Finance, Senator Mathias Cormann ( both pictured) said the election promises made since the Budget was brought down on 2 April, had added $1.4 billion in expenditure on new commitments, growing to $3.8 billion over the medium term.
“This is more than offset by a reduction in Departmental funding of $1.5 billion over the forward estimates, building to $5 billion over the medium term,” the former Ministers said.
Mr Frydenberg said that over the forward estimates Departmental funding would reduce from $288.6 billion to $287.1 billion.
He said the Government would leave it to the judgement of Departmental Secretaries where the required efficiencies could be found.
“If Departmental Secretaries assess that these efficiencies can best be secured through reductions in expenditure on contractors, consultants and travel, because that makes sense from a value-for-money point of view, then of course that is what the coalition would expect them to do,” Mr Frydenberg said.
“Efficiency outcomes will be better and more sensible by letting Departmental Secretaries make those judgements based on value-for-money considerations.”
He said the changes would result in a slight improvement to the predicted Budget surpluses, now expected to be 45.1 billion over the next four years.
The Community and Public Sector Union said the Government’s plans would mean a reduction of at least 3,000 jobs from the Australian Public Service, putting more pressure on the delivery of essential services for the Australian people.
