Bloated bureaucracy faces Tony Abbott’s razor in this week’s Budget
- by: exclusive simon benson national political editor
- From: The Daily Telegraph
- May 12, 2014 12:00AM
TONY Abbott will rip more than $1.3 billion out of one of Julia Gillard’s failed flagship green schemes and axe the renewable energy agency completely, in a move that is likely to spark a bitter Budget showdown with Labor and the Greens in the senate.
MAJOR CUTS TO THE DEFENCE BUREAUCRACY TOO
But it won’t be the only government agency to be abolished in tomorrow’s Budget with more than 36 agencies, bodies or advisory councils, many which perform functions few Australians would have ever heard of, to also be scrapped.
Six government agencies will go completely, nine other government bodies will cease to exist, dozens more will be amalgamated or privatised and 150 commonwealth programs will be scaled back or streamlined.
Government sources said this will save almost $500 million to the taxpayer over the four-year budget forward estimates in a drive to reduce the size of government.
The size of the government bureaucracy is so bloated that the Department of Finance still cannot list the number of agencies and bodies that exist.
In a move that is likely to unite Labor and the Greens in the senate to try to block the move, the government will announce in tomorrow’s Budget that it will legislate to axe the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), created in 2012 by the Gillard government to co-fund private sector renewable energy projects.
Treasurer Joe Hockey and Finance Minister Mathias Cormann will adopt many of the Commission of Audit’s recommendations on dramatically trimming public sector agencies.
The most controversial is likely to be the axing of ARENA, which Labor created through legislation as part of its carbon tax agenda.
It had originally been given the power to administer $3.1 billion in grants to help fund renewable energy projects, which was then reduced down to $2.5 billion.
The government confirmed that $1 billion will be left in a fund to honour those projects that had already been committed and contracts signed, but the remaining $1.3 billion will be booked as a budget saving.
On top of ARENA, the agencies to go include The Australian National Preventive Health Agency (ANPHA), Health Workforce Australia, General Practice Education and Training Ltd, the Telecommunications Universal Service Management Agency (TUSMA) and the COAG Reform Council.
Nine other government bodies set for the chopping block including the Prime Minister’s indigenous Business Policy Advisory Group as well as obscure bodies such as the Abalone Aquaculture Health Accreditation Working Group, the Grape and Wine Research and Development Selection Committee and the Wine Australia Corporation Selection Committee.
The scrapping of these agencies will save the taxpayer just under $500 million over four-year budget estimates — with a warning there is more to come. The Commission of Audit recommends a rationalisation of all government agencies.
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