"Thousands of the 36,000 public service jobs added under Anthony Albanese are in departments critical to national security and service delivery for Australians, analysis of public service data has revealed.\n\nOpposition Leader Peter Dutton has vowed to cut public service ""waste"" if he wins the federal election, and has cited the growth of the public service by 36,000 since Labor took office in 2022 as wasteful, inflationary and a ""recipe to please the unions"".\n\nHe has also sought to link those jobs to a cultural backlash in the United States against workplace initiatives that seek to promote the participation of groups who have been historically under-represented in the workforce.\n\nLast month, Mr Dutton took aim at what he called ""culture, diversity and inclusion"" roles in the public service, after United States President Donald Trump signed an order banning similar ""diversity, equity and inclusion"" initiatives in US federal departments.\n\nHe linked the growth in the federal bureaucracy by 36,000 to advertised roles such as ""culture, diversity and inclusion advisers, change managers and internal communications specialist[s]"".\n\n5,700 national security jobs among larger public service workforce\nAnalysis of the new positions created since 2022 shows the vast majority are directly connected to key public service agencies.\n\nFederal government figures show 5,700 jobs have been added across Defence, Home Affairs, the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Criminal Intelligence Commission and the Australian Submarine Agency.\n\nFour thousand jobs have been added at Services Australia, which includes Centrelink, and another 4,150 at the National Disability Insurance Agency and the NDIS watchdog.\n\nWhile the federal government committed to grow frontline staffing at Services Australia, its efforts have yielded mixed results, with some call wait times continuing to grow in recent years.\n\nThree thousand jobs have also been added at the tax office, 1,000 at the Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA) and 1,300 at the Agriculture Department, which handles biosecurity risks.\n\nLabor has made a particular point of highlighting the growth in staff at the DVA, who were brought on to help clear a significant backlog of claims by veterans that sometimes took years to be approved.\n\nAnother 2,700 jobs have been added at the Climate and Energy department, which manages energy and environmental approvals.\n\nFinance Minister Katy Gallagher\nFinance Minister Katy Gallagher has challenged the Coalition to detail where it would make cuts to the public service.\n\nFinance and Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher told the ABC if thousands of jobs were cut it would cause a ""return to worse services, expensive consultants and the era of Robodebt"".\n\n""No matter what he says, you just can't cut 20 per cent of the public service without cutting the services that people rely on every day like Medicare and the pension,"" Senator Gallagher said.\n\n""His reckless and arrogant plan shows he learnt nothing from his time as a minister overseeing a department in crisis.""\n\nLabor exploits Dutton secrecy over proposed cuts\nLabor has challenged Mr Dutton to explain where he would make cuts to the public service, saying that unwinding the jobs it has added could threaten Australia's borders and undermine service delivery.\n\nOn Thursday, Mr Dutton suggested he had not encountered ""any Australians who say that it's easier to deal with the government as a result of employing 36,000 more public servants"".\n\nAustralian Opposition Leader Peter Dutton talks during an address to the Menzies Research Centre. \nPeter Dutton says the public service has ""ballooned"" under Labor. (AAP: Steven Markham)\n\nThe Opposition Leader has promised not to cut frontline positions and says the Coalition will ""bolster"" some services, including by supporting training places for doctors and Medicare services for mental health.\n\nBut he has refused to say whether the Coalition will detail its planned cuts before the federal election.\n\n""We need to sit down and look through an [expenditure review committee] process, which would be the normal course of things. We'll do that in government,"" Mr Dutton told Insiders last week.\n\nDutton 'happy to take questions' but won't give policy specifics\nPhoto shows Peter Dutton speaks at a press conference in brisbanePeter Dutton speaks at a press conference in brisbane \nThere's always a bit of pomp and circumstance around the meeting of the federal parliament but recently there are more ""traditions"".\n\n""We know what we're doing. We're able to hit the ground running and we've worked with the departments, with many of the departmental heads that are there now, and I have no doubt that we'll be able to find where Labor has put fat into the system that is not helping do anything but drive inflation.""\n\nOn that program, Mr Dutton also repeated his claim that the government ""[put] an additional 36,000 public servants into Canberra"".\n\nHowever, Australian Public Service Commission data suggests that as of June last year, more than two-thirds of new roles created since 2022 were outside the nation's capital.\n\nReducing the public service headcount by 36,000 would amount to a 20 per cent cut to the workforce.\n\nMr Dutton has suggested shrinking the public service could save $24 billion over four years, which could be used to pay down debt or put downward pressure on inflation."