Given the Coalition has pledged to cut 41,000 positions ( by natural attrition now, which is when you don’t replace people as they leave – but also means you can not judge the impact to service delivery, especially since the highest turn over in the public service is frontline roles in Services Australia etc) what does the Coalition consider to be a frontline service worker?

Angus Taylor:

If someone’s serving veterans, for instance, that’s a frontline position. If someone’s working in the military, that’s a frontline position.

Q: So does that mean that a worker can’t be doing a useful job if they’re not sitting in a booth or on the phone, dealing directly with the public? That is the only threshold for a valuable job in the public service?

Taylor doesn’t answer it:

Not at all and we haven’t said that. What we’ve said is we need to get the public service to the size it was when we were last in government. We need to repair budget deficits that are costing Australians dearly. We’re going to see around $125,000 of debt for every family and interest payments for every family in Australiain the next couple of years and so a responsible government would be doing everything it can to make sure the public service isn’t bigger but is better. Look, there’s incredible people working in our public service. I want to enable them to be their very, very best.