MARK COLVIN (HOST): Senator Wong told Alexandra Kirk that the savings were very different to the recent budget cuts in Queensland and New South Wales.
WONG: This is a targeted save; a save that recognises the importance of the public sector contributing to the Government's task of bringing the budget back to surplus. But it's a save that targets efficiencies; it doesn't target job cuts such as those we've seen in Queensland.
KIRK: Can you really cut $500 million from the federal public service without losing any jobs beyond the 4,200 already scheduled to go?
WONG: We've worked very hard with Departments to identify areas we think we can make savings. But, as I said, they're not about targeting jobs because Labor does take a different approach to finding public sector efficiencies.
KIRK: Can you guarantee though that there won't be any jobs lost as a result of these cuts?
WONG: I can guarantee what we're targeting and that is efficiencies, not job cuts. And I can guarantee that we are upfront; which stands in stark contrast to the way in which Tony Abbott and Joe Hockey refuse to tell Australians just how many public servants and frontline services they want to cut.
KIRK: You're yet to identify the lion's share of the cuts; do you know where the rest of them will come from or are you still negotiating with Departmental heads?
WONG: We've actually already identified some $340 million of the $550 million, but obviously when you're getting to this point of targeting savings, you do need to work closely with Departments, and that's what we'll be doing in the areas of priority, which include things like travel and printing, to make sure we can deliver all of these savings in the most efficient way.
KIRK: But you've still got another couple of hundred million dollars worth of savings to go; do you know where they will come from?
WONG: I'm confident that in the areas we identify we can find more savings. So, for example, we can continue to reduce printing costs there's a lot of money that's spent on printing. We know that the more we move online, the more we can save on that.
For example, we know that the $6 million is only a 5 per cent reduction in printing costs so we obviously have more work to do there. But, as I said, this will involve more work with Departments.
KIRK: Do you expect that some public servants will have to stop travelling altogether?
WONG: I expect them to reduce their travel and to reduce their business class travel and to reduce their international travel.
KIRK: Have you stipulated who and when can use business class flights?
WONG: Our expectation would be for short-haul flights people could move to economy class. Ultimately agencies will have to decide how they want to implement this reduction in their travel budgets. But the reality is we do have a lot of travel in the Commonwealth and we believe we can find further efficiencies there.
KIRK: You've decided not to call these an efficiency dividend. As I understand it, it's a conscious decision by the Government; what was the problem?
WONG: I think we recognise that we have asked of the public service a significant contribution to the budget objective through the efficiency dividend and that it was time that we looked to a more targeted approach rather than an across the board approach. And that's the approach we've taken to target these particular savings.
KIRK: Efficiency dividends are left to the Departmental heads to determine where the spending cuts are actually made, but this time round your imposing the cuts. Didn't you trust them to decide where it was best to make the cuts?
WONG: What we wanted to do was to target a greater level of savings in an environment where we know the public sector's already had to contribute to the Government's budget strategy for the reasons we've outlined.
KIRK: Departmental heads did raise some concerns that they would be able to achieve more cuts if there was another efficiency dividend?
WONG: The Government took a decision that the better approach was a targeted approach rather than imposing a further efficiency dividend. We wanted to identify particular areas of savings and that's what we've done.
KIRK: Because the Departmental heads regarded these sorts of savings as what, off limits?
WONG: What I'm saying is the Government has already put in place a higher efficiency dividend. Our expectation is agencies would respond to that. Because of the fiscal circumstances we need to identify more savings, and we thought the most appropriate thing to do was to target particular areas of savings where we believed that we could find additional efficiency. That's what we've done.
KIRK: Do you think there are some savings to be made from politicians themselves?
WONG: I think I've said obviously we would encourage people to try and ensure they fly economy, particularly on shorter flights.
KIRK: But beyond that?
WONG: We've made our position on that clear.
ENDS