Matt Grudnoff
Senior Economist

I can now see why the Coalition didn’t want to publish these costings until the very last minute.

There are all kinds of craziness in there. But my initial thoughts are:

They are planning to save $17.3 billion from sacking… sorry… the natural attrition of public servants only from Canberra and not from front line positions or national security or home affairs . This has as much chance of being delivered on time and on budget as their nuclear plan. At some point the Coalition will either start sacking people from across the country and from front line services, or they will give up on ever getting close to a $17 billion amount.

If they can’t save anything like $17 billion then their claims to improve the budget bottom line by $14 billion will go up in smoke.

Other interesting things from a first quick look:

They’re planning to cut foreign aid by $814 million. The last time the Coalition did this it destroyed our reputation across the region which required extensive work and time to repair.

They want to raise another $3.1 billion from foreign students in additional visa application charges, while also planning big cuts to migration.

At a time when the economic, workforce participation, and child development benefits of early childhood education and care are well known, they’re planning to save $308 million by reintroducing the childcare activity test.