The opposition leader, Peter Dutton, has foreshadowed the axing of diversity and inclusion positions in the public service as part of wider cuts to the commonwealth bureaucracy if he wins the federal election.
The main public sector union said the idea was straight out of the playbook of the US president, Donald Trump, who has declared war on so-called DEI measures (diversity, equity and inclusion) since returning to the White House.
In a speech on Friday, Dutton referenced DEI advisers, along with “change managers” and “internal communication specialists”, as examples of non-frontline roles that bloated the bureaucracy without directly helping taxpayers.
“Such positions, as I say, do nothing to improve the lives of everyday Australians,” Dutton claimed.
“They’re certainly not frontline service delivery roles that can make a difference to people’s lives.”
It is not clear how many DEI-related roles exist in the federal public service. But Dutton’s comments suggested DEI roles would be in the firing line under his promise to “scale back” the federal bureaucracy, which he claims has grown by 36,000 under the Albanese government.
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Labor warned cutting the new positions – most of which are not Canberra-based – could lead to longer wait times for government services, threaten the implementation of Aukus, undermine tax avoidance crackdowns or affect disability services.
The Community and Public Sector Union’s national secretary, Melissa Donnelly, said Dutton’s rhetoric was “straight from the Donald Trump playbook” and demonstrated a “lack of understanding of modern workplaces”.
The US president this week signed executive orders to ban diversity programs at US federal agencies, and suggested overnight – without evidence – that pro-diversity hiring policies were partly to blame for the air disaster that killed 67 people in Washington DC.
“Inclusion and diversity may sound like an easy target to Mr Dutton and Mr Trump, but for people who access public services, the value of having someone who speaks their language and understands their experience is immeasurable,” Donnelly said.
Dutton was accused of mimicking the new US president elsewhere this week when he added a government efficiency portfolio to his shadow ministry, drawing immediate comparisons to the Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency under the new Trump administration.
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On Friday, Dutton announced Jacinta Nampijinpa Price’s new portfolio would sit inside the department of prime minister and cabinet under a Coalition government, giving her oversight of spending cuts across agencies.
“My economic team’s objectives are clear: we will cut wasteful spending, stop inflationary spending, and restore prudent spending,” Dutton said.
Separately on Friday, Senator Price announced that a Dutton government would halt taxpayer funding for welcome to country ceremonies.
Freedom of information documents, obtained by the Coalition and first reported by the Sunday Telegraph, revealed federal agencies spent more than $450,000 on the ceremonies in the past two years.
“I don’t believe that we should be spending $450,000 a [government] term on Welcome to Country, when that isn’t actually improving the life of a marginalised Indigenous Australian,” Price told ABC News.
The prime minister, Anthony Albanese, dead-batted questions about Price’s promise.
“What I’m doing is talking about issues that Australians are concerned about,” Albanese said.