Government Senator Zed Seselja has broken ranks with his Finance Minister to call for an end to the Liberals’ arbitrary and damaging average staffing level (ASL) cap for the public service.
 
Senator Seselja told The Canberra Times today that removing the cap is:

“something I’ve been arguing for internally”:
 
"[The cap] has been there for some time so I think it's certainly something I'd like to see and if we come back into government, that that is something we do see lift. There's no doubt about that."
 
(Senator Seselja, 15 April 2019)

The admission is a stunning rebuff for Finance Minister Mathias Cormann, who has long defended the ASL cap, and an admission that the Liberals’ arbitrary cap makes no sense.
 
Scott Morrison needs to urgently clarify whose side he is on in this latest internal Coalition drama.
 
Labor has already announced we will abolish the Morrison Government’s arbitrary ASL cap.
 
Abolishing the cap will help ensure more expertise, experience and corporate memory is retained in the public service by encouraging agencies to employ permanent bureaucrats over contractors and consultants.
 
Labor calls on the Liberals to adopt our other sensible reforms to improve the public service, including reining in wasteful spending on contractors and consultants, not proceeding with the remaining 0.5 per cent additional efficiency dividend next financial year, adding 1200 new permanent and full-time Department of Human Services staff, and reducing spending on travel across the public service.