The Albanian government has rejected the idea of forming a unit to reduce government waste in Australia after two billionaires raised the idea.
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However, appearing on Wednesday morning’s Sunrise show, federal Housing Minister Claire O’Neil said ordinary Australians should feel “a shudder when we see a couple of billionaires talking about efficiencies in government services”.
“What this really means for viewers is drastic cuts to essential services like health, education and other services that we ordinary Australians depend on,” Ms O’Neil told Nat Barr on his Sunrise show.
“This has no relevance to Australia.”
‘But why does he do it?’ Barr interrupted.
‘Because Nat, the government does incredibly important things. It looks after our sick children in hospital, educates our children and pays for the care of elderly Australians,” Ms O’Neil responded.
“These are abstract things for billionaires who can pay their own way, but for ordinary people, they are meaningful and important things in their lives.”
Housing Minister Claire O’Neil (pictured left) rejected the idea of a cost-cutting drive for Australia’s government led by business tycoons.
However, Barr was still not convinced.
“Today, a lot of people might be sitting in their living rooms thinking, ‘Well, okay, I mean, whether you like Elon Musk or not, but if someone becomes a billionaire, they might know how to make money, we might know how to make money.’ how to reduce waste,” Barr said.
‘Let’s try it.
“I just think people at home could be open, I mean, we know the government needs to be run, but maybe people are interested in digging into exactly where the money goes, maybe we should be open to that.”
Meanwhile, Shadow Finance Minister Jane Hume accused O’Neil of being “hugely disrespectful” in her response when discussing Musk and Rinehart, who are worth more than $466 billion and $30 billion. respectively.
“You don’t get to be the richest man in the world or the richest person in Australia by accident, you get there because you have some ideas about how to be efficient, how to be effective and how to be profitable,” Ms Hume said. .
‘I would like the government to spend taxpayers’ money more wisely, and you should too.
‘In fact, there are 36,000 additional public servants who have joined since this government began. 36,000.
Gina Rinehart (pictured left) has endorsed Elon Musk (pictured right) in his new role of reducing government waste.
Many Australians have called on the Albanian government to create a Department of Government Efficiency.
‘That’s a cost of billions of dollars, and I don’t know about you, but I don’t necessarily think it’s $36,000. Public servants are better served than I was two years ago.
Hume appeared to be referring to a report published by the Australian Bureau of Statistics which stated that 26,000 public servants had been added to the bureaucracy since the Albanese government came to power in 2022.
With more than half of that increase coming from new jobs in Canberra, the wage bill had soared by 23 per cent in the national capital.
Overall public sector salaries were $37 billion a year, up from $32.5 billion in June 2022, with a total workforce of 365,400 people.
The report says 15,100 jobs were added in the Commonwealth public service in 2023-24 after 11,000 jobs were created in the first year of the Albanian government.