The AFR reported this yesterday and today (and managed to almost contain the WE WERE RIGHT smugness in the article – public service spending is a particular bugbear of this incarnation of the Fin) and Clare O’Neil has been asked about it on the Seven network – where are departments going to find these cuts?

O’Neil:

This is a really important and practical part of government. Taxpayer dollars are really precious. This is not our money and for everyone whose watching at home, they hard for their salaries and contribute to the tax system in good faith that their dollars will be looked after and invested on critical things like supporting our aging population, supporting child care, supporting our Medicare system, the National Disability Insurance Scheme and other services that many Australian families rely on is absolutely appropriate that every year we take an absolutely strong look at the budget and make sure when we’re making these big improvements to services as our government is doing on Medicare on bulk billing on cheaper medicines and energy bill price relief we’re thinking about where we can rationalise on the budget.

What about that $96m on the BoM website (which was started in 2019 under the Morrison government)

O’Neil:

That’s an historic spend. The minister said he’s unhappy about that. There’s absolutely areas in the public service where we do need to think about making sure that we’re spending taxpayers money wisely and for everyone who is watching at home I really want them to understand we see that your struggling the cost of living, you’re struggling with energy prices and other matters we want to do everything the government can do to help you in those areas. It means having a strong look at the budget and make sure every dollar is spent wisely