The Liberals have attacked Labor for expanding the public service by 36,000 people as it cut costs on consultants, with opposition finance spokeswoman Jane Hume confirming they'd be gone under a coalition government.
"We think we can bring down the number of public servants to where it was at the end of COVID," she told Sky News on Sunday.
"We think that the 36,000 public servants that have been brought on haven't demonstrated that the improvements to the services, to the public, have been corresponding," she said.
Senator Hume said there would be no cut to frontline services, although where the cuts would come from hasn't been outlined.
The coalition has also attacked public servants for working from home too much, saying they would force workers back to the office.Â
Labor estimates transport and parking would cost workers about $5000 a year if they had to return to the office five days a week, up from three.
The cost is based on estimates people would spend an extra two hours a week in the car, or just under 100 extra hours a year, with commuters driving an average of just over an hour in the car to get to and from work.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese is expected to call the election in the next week, after the government hands down the federal budget on Tuesday and Mr Dutton delivers his reply speech on Thursday.
Mr Albanese is spruiking an extension to energy bill rebates in the pre-election budget, announcing a $150 rebate in two equal instalments across the final two quarters of the 2025 calendar year.
"I look forward to Tuesday night's budget being an important element in providing cost-of-living relief," he told reporters in Sydney on Sunday.
The opposition has attacked Labor for promising a $275 reduction in power bills at the 2022 election, a number that disappeared from talking points as electricity prices rose.
The coalition will support the new rebate but pledged to bring down power prices without government subsidies, with the election to be fought largely on cost of living pressures.
Labor is centring its campaign on healthcare while the coalition is on the attack over inflation as household bills soar.
But there has been mixed messaging on whether the coalition will extend its flagged divestiture laws from the supermarket sector to insurance companies.
Shadow Treasurer Angus Taylor said the coalition would take action if it needed to, flagging divestiture as a last resort.
"We're prepared to take action where there's clear evidence of an abuse of market power or anti-competitive action," he told the ABC's Insiders when asked if breaking up insurance companies was on the table.
"Divestiture can play a role, we will act."
The coalition pivoted to a national security debate in the previous week as Labor gained ground in the polls.
It reheated plans for a referendum on stripping dual nationals of their Australian citizenship if they engage in serious crimes like terrorism, but senior coalition members walked back Mr Dutton's comments, saying it was a last-case resort.
The Commonwealth can already apply to a court to have a person's Australian citizenship stripped.
Previous laws put in place when Mr Dutton was in office that gave the minister power to bypass the courts, were ruled unconstitutional.
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