The shadow cabinet met in Canberra yesterday to consider potential areas of public spending to slash. Given the level of rhetoric coming from the opposition about Australia’s ‘bloated’ public service, public sector spending and staffing numbers were undoubtedly under severe review.

However our new report,  The State of the Public Service: An Alternative Report, has found that the amount of public servants per capita has in fact shrunk substantially since 1990 and further cuts could endanger the quality of service.

“The opposition’s plan would involve retrenching “7.5 per cent of the staff who deliver services, develop policies, make rules and laws, monitor and enforce laws and regulations, collect taxes and manage government finance”.

Read more about our research in articles published by AAP in The Australian, The Daily Telegraph, The Courier Mail, Perth Now, The Herald Sun and  news.com.au here.