Coalition completes public service cuts backflip as alleged terror plot against Dutton revealed

Welcome back to your daily election wrap. Brett Worthington will catch you up on news from the campaign trail.

There was a reason Peter Dutton and his Coalition opted for such a public backflip on their work-from-home and public service cuts policies.

Taking out the trash on a Friday, as is so often the case with politics, is for when you want to back down or put something out without people knowing.

Such was the diabolic state of the public sector policies that the Coalition had to put it up in lights.

The backdown came with a chaser that the Coalition also wouldn't be sacking tens of thousands of public servants, a response to Labor's accusations that frontline workers would be axed. 

With the boil lanced, the party was meant to be moving on, returning its focus to how expensive everything is.

The Coalition wanted to tap into a 2022 campaign line, but with a 2025 2.0 version: it's not easy under Albanese. 

Enter James Paterson, the typically rock solid campaign spokesperson.

"We will cap the size of the Australian public service and we will reduce the numbers back to the levels they were three years ago through natural attrition..." he said.

But it came with a kicker:  "...and voluntary redundancies."

When reminded by RN Breakfast presenter Sally Sara that the policy had changed along the way, Paterson insisted it hadn't and that natural attrition and voluntary redundancies were always part of the plan.

Confused? No one would blame you if you are. 

The Coalition has spent the best part of the past year talking about cuts to the public service.

The Coalition initially suggested it would, to quote the would-be deputy prime minister David Littleproud, "sack" 36,000 public servants. That figure rose to 41,000 this year. 

Finance spokesperson Jane Hume loved the policy so much she often made it a feature of her social media videos, asking voters if they felt better served from Labor's "binge" on a "bloated Canberra bureaucracy".

The Coalition insisted it would pocket $24 billion in savings.

A spanner was well and truly inserted in the works when this week Hume was sent out to rule out those sackings Littleproud had been boasting about last year.

Instead, the Coalition insisted hiring freezes and natural attrition would deliver the job cuts over five years (military, frontline and national security positions would be exempt). 

If, as Paterson suggested, voluntary redundancies were always in the plan, it certainly wasn't getting mentioned when Hume was sent out to perform an about face on Monday.

Pressed at a press conference in Perth on Friday about voluntary redundancies, Dutton dismissed the question, saying only: "We've spoken about that a lot."

The opposition insists the advice it has from the Parliamentary Budget Office will show that its numbers stack up and $7 billion can be saved each year.

*please wait while we check those documents.

Oh, right, they haven't been released. 

Why are you so obsessed with me?

The opposition leader found himself in the west, where he's on a mission to win back the swathe of seats that delivered Labor majority government in 2022.

(Now you have two choices for this next bit. It's a choose your own adventure and you can opt for Mariah Carey or Regina George. And with that, on we go.)

Channelling his inner diva (insert selected option from above), Dutton posed a version of a simple question to Prime Minister Anthony Albanese: why are you so obsessed with me?

"Had success been up in lights, and that had been the experience of people across the country over the last three years, the prime minister, instead of being obsessed with me, would be talking about his record of success," he told a business breakfast. 

"I don't need to attack the character of the prime minister to win the next election."

Opposition leader target of terror plot

On a serious note, the two men had cause for direct contact on Friday, after it emerged Dutton was allegedly the target of a terror plot.

Albanese told reporters he reached out to Dutton about the matter. He told reporters that authorities were also dealing with threats that had been made against him. 

Dutton, who has long been subject to police protection, told reporters that his mind immediately turned to the safety of his family when he was told about the plot. 

Threats against politicians have risen in recent years and its increasingly apparent on the campaign, with police ring-fencing the leaders in a more visible way that previous campaigns. 

Trump showers while stock markets burn

Meanwhile in Trump's America, forget the meltdown on global markets, the president had bigger things on his mind — the importance of a good shower for his golden hair.

"I like to take a nice shower to take care of my beautiful hair," he said to laughter in the Oval Office.

"I have to stand under the shower for 15 minutes 'til it gets wet.

"It comes out drip, drip, drip. It's ridiculous."

Thankfully, he's promising showers can be quicker now he's tackling the water pressure.

Brings a whole new meaning to: sorry I can't (offer greater confidence to global markets), I'm washing my hair.

Good day for...

Social media and tech companies, which are making bank on the campaign. The ABC reports the major parties dropped $1.4 million on Meta and Google ads in the early days of the campaign. Clive Palmer's (big) ToP spent $668,000 on Google ads alone within a week.

Bad day for...

The Greens in the Melbourne seat of Macnamara, which the party hopes to nab from Labor. Leader Adam Bandt was furious when he learned Labor would run an open ticket, which means the how-to-vote cards won't offer a guide for how to allocate preferences. Bandt dubbed it a "dirty deal" with the Liberals that "risks the Liberals winning the seat, and bringing Dutton one step closer to the Lodge".

What to watch out for 

In case you feel like you haven't seen and heard enough from Albanese and Dutton this week, in the words of infomercial hosts, "but wait, there's more!" Albanese will officially launch Labor's campaign in Perth on Sunday at 1pm AEST, an hour after Dutton launches the Coalition's in Sydney at midday. It's yet to be determined if a free knife will be thrown in. 

Where pollies have been

Catch up on today's stories

• Australian-designed weapon trialled by Israel's military ahead of potential purchase
• Coal-funded Australians for Prosperity deletes posts after AEC intervention
• Major parties pour millions into social media advertising in first week
• Will there be leadership changes on both sides of politics next parliamentary term?
  
   

Having problems seeing this form? Try this link.