Finance minister vows to slash more consultants and accuses Coalition of importing Trump’s Doge agenda

Katy Gallagher says the 41,000 jobs created in Labor’s first term were necessary to ‘stop the failures’ in certain departments and counter the Coalition’s use of consultants. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

The finance minister has vowed to continue slashing the government’s use of consultants and rebuilding the public service if re-elected, while accusing the Coalition of importing a Doge-style agenda from the US.

In an effort to highlight the public service as a key campaign issue, Katy Gallagher said Labor had inherited an agriculture department that was “going broke”, a “bin fire” at home affairs, a social services department with no internal policy unit and “total disasters” in aged care and veterans’ affairs agencies.