Public service faces further cuts

The public service faces further cuts as the Turnbull government seeks to find savings.

The Turnbull government will cut the number of bureaucrats intended to oversee the national disability insurance scheme by 70 per cent.

The National Disability Insurance Agency was to have 10,595 permanent public service positions by 2018/19 as the NDIS rolls out.

But the budget papers released on Tuesday revealed that figure would now be capped at 3000 with "more efficient non-government models" used to deliver the NDIS.

A 2.5 per cent efficiency dividend and one-off cuts applied between 2014 and 2017 had brought public service numbers back to where they were a decade ago.

The cuts had amounted to $2.7 billion so far.

The Turnbull government plans to keep the efficiency dividend at 2.5 per cent in 2017/18, reducing it to two per cent in 2018/19 and 1.5 per cent in 2019/20.

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull wants to reinvest $500 million of the savings into putting more government services online and making better use of digital technology within departments.

The prime minister's own department will be one of eight agencies, also including the Australian Federal Police, to go under the efficiency microscope for cuts in 2016/17.

The number of government bodies is on track to fall from 1332 in 2013 to 1159 in 2016/17.

Borrowing the title of a popular computer game, Operation Tetris will provide savings of $200 million over 10 years by requiring agencies to fill vacant leased office space in the ACT rather than enter into new leases or renew expiring leases.


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Source: AAP



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