Angus Taylor has already set the tone for the LNP's budget reply by taking a swipe at the Albanese government for believing a well-resourced and fully staffed public service was essential to good government.
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Mr Taylor, who said the budget proved Australians "were poorer under Labor", claimed Canberra would get an extra 36,000 public servants.
"At a time when the budget forecasts unemployment to rise the Albanese government is increasing the size of the public service by an astonishing 36,000 additional bureaucrats in Canberra," he said.
Mr Taylor is being somewhat misleading with this claim. The government is creating an additional 12,000 - odd APS positions this year, but a difference of 17,000 since the last budget after previous estimates where revised. The previous 12 months saw around 15,000 further positions added.
Secondly, a large number of those positions will be outside of Canberra in state capitals such as Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Perth, and in regional and even remote areas.
But it plays well outside Canberra to complain about having too many bureaucrats in the capital.
The truth that the Coalition chooses to ignore is that over their almost a decade in government the APS was hollowed out and politicised to a degree never seen before in this country.
It preferred to seek guidance from "yes man" consultants who knew very well that if they wanted to keep their snouts in the trough they had to tell the government what it wanted to hear. That's hardly a recipe for fearless and independent advice.
If the Albanese government succeeds in reinvigorating the APS by developing professional subject matter experts and advisers while, at the same time, giving Services Australia, the Department of Veterans Affairs and other agencies the personnel they need to deliver front line services in a more expeditious manner then it will have done Australia, and Australians, a great service.
While everybody loves to have a whinge about the waiting times to get through to Medicare or Centrelink few people stop to ask themselves why. The delays are not the fault of the beleaguered and overworked staff. It's not even the fault of their bosses who for the better part of a decade were told their jobs depended on doing more and more with less and less.
The LNP's mindset was that public servants are overpaid, underworked, generally bad at their jobs and poor value for money. When "small government" is your mantra it's inevitable that this type of thinking dominates.
While Dr Chalmers' third budget is open to criticism on several fronts, not least because of the threat further financial relief poses to inflation, its commitment to boosting APS numbers and eliminating a further 2500 contracted roles that were costing over a billion dollars is beyond reproach.
The additional $3 billion for Services Australia over five years is particularly welcome. So too is the additional funding for the Department of Home Affairs and the Department of Veterans Affairs.
And, at the local level, after years of neglect under the Abbott, Turnbull and Morrison governments, it is good to see a federal government that is finally investing in the ACT.
According to the budget papers the government will likely spend $808 million on infrastructure projects in and around Canberra over the next 10 years. This includes millions promised for the AIS upgrade, the duplication of William Hovell Drive, and $50 million towards Stage 2 of light rail, along with $10 million towards a masterplan for Bruce that will include a new Canberra stadium.
There is a lot to look forward to for our long-suffering city.
