Assistant minister for the public service Patrick Gorman has fired a warning shot to the Opposition, calling on Sturt MP James Stevens to stop entertaining any notion of cutting APS numbers and delivering critical services.
Gorman told The Mandarin that he wanted Stevens to back down and stop sniffing around the extra 10,000 hardworking public servants who had been appointed during Labor’s first term of government.
“The additional people are delivering critical services, such as reducing the wait times for veterans’ claims,” Gorman said.
“Minister Katy Gallagher and I have been strong and clear about the fact that we are reinvesting in the capability of the public service.”
“Our government is committed to making sure our public service has the capability to do its job well.”
Stevens was profiled in the news media last week after Peter Dutton announced that the former chief of staff to South Australian premier Steven Marshall had been appointed shadow assistant minister for government waste reduction.
Gorman described the position as the “shadow assistant minister for slash and burn”, and said the Opposition’s stance was hypocritical given the Coalition’s stance on issues such as Medicare and the overuse of contractors and consultants.
“James Stevens MP boasted in The Canberra Times last week that he had questions about the jobs of 10,000 hardworking public servants.
“From a Coalition that set up a Medicare privatisation task force — but claims they didn’t want to privatise Medicare — this is classic doublespeak,” Gorman said.
Hitting back at the so-called doublespeak, the assistant minister said a well-resourced and strong APS workforce would help avoid failure and controversy of the likes of robodebt, the sports rorts saga, and unacceptable delays in service delivery that have beleaguered major agencies such as the Department of Veterans’ Affairs (DVA) and Services Australia.
“Under the former Coalition government, there was a 54,000-strong shadow workforce of consultants and contractors that they kept secret and never counted,” Gorman said.
“Our [Labor] government wants an Australian Public Service with enough capability to keep rorts, scandals and excessive wait times as a thing of the past.”
Just last week DVA announced that it had cleared its claims backlog as of February 29, and in keeping with the interim recommendation of the Royal Commission into Defence and Veteran Suicide.
“DVA has increased claims processing staff and productivity to support the increasing number of claims received,” a note on the department website read.
“Of the 41,799 backlog of claims, identified in the royal commission’s interim report, over 85.6% have now been completed.
“With the government’s commitment to an additional 500 ongoing staff (Average Staffing Level), DVA has cleared the backlog and is also now operating in a new business-as-usual environment.”
The department has achieved a processing rate of registering, screening, and allocating 4,000 new claims to an officer every two weeks.
“DVA recognises that many veterans have been waiting too long for their claims to be processed.
“While clearing the backlog is an important first step, DVA is focussed on improving claims processing timeframes and outcomes for veterans and families,” the note read.
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