Isn’t it amazing how the cost of living crisis seems to affect everybody apart from our bureaucrats…

While the Australian people are struggling to pay their bills, there seems to be more than enough money for bureaucrats to order hand-crafted desks costing tens of thousands of dollars.

And what do our bureaucrats do with a $20,000 desk? They put it in storage!

I wish I was joking. But that little story, revealed in the news recently, is just the latest example of government excess.

And here’s the scary part. We are now so accustomed to government waste that people aren’t even surprised anymore.

That desk was commissioned under a Liberal government, and it was put into storage under the Albanese government. Liberal, Labor – they’re both the same.

Your money, Monopoly money – neither of them can tell the difference anymore.

Albanese came to office promising fiscal responsibility while splurging $450 million of your money on a referendum that we all knew would fail.

Is it any wonder the public service plays fast and loose with our tax dollars when those at the top spend like a drunken sailor? The only difference between these bureaucrats and a drunken sailor is that they never sober up.

The government pumps more than a billion dollars a year into the ABC despite the fact it is losing viewers.

The government finds $600 million down the back of the couch to fund a football team in Port Moresby.

And, to add insult to injury, government-approved departments spent a lazy $450,000 on Welcome to Country ceremonies over the past two years.

But like I said, none of this is a surprise. It barely raises an eyebrow anymore. We have become so accustomed to our money being wasted that we are only surprised when it is not.

Trump won in a landslide by promising to ‘drain the swamp’ and to cut excess spending in the public service.

Within a month of taking office he put Elon Musk in charge of DOGE, to root out the waste, and the results have been astonishing.

We’ve been astonished not only by the scale of waste but by the visceral reaction from bureaucrats upset that suddenly their use of public money is being scrutinised.

Their fury at being asked to explain their spending only goes to show how public servants in the US had come to believe it was their money they were spending, rather than the public’s.

I have no doubt the same attitude exists here in Australia.

We desperately need a Department of Government Efficiency. But would you trust anyone in the major parties to run it?

The Coalition was in power for nine years, during that time they expanded rather than reduced the size of government. We know by experience that the Liberals are no different from Labor.

If the Coalition wins the election, and if they are given the task of cracking down on government waste, we may see some improvement around the edges, but the results will be marginal. After all, why would they investigate themselves and reveal the waste that they were responsible for?

For real change, we need a disruptor. That’s what Trump has done. That’s what Elon Musk has provided. That’s the only way meaningful change will ever occur.

And that is our challenge at the upcoming federal election. More of the same won’t cut it. We must continue to challenge the status quo and to push back against what we are told is and is not possible.

We have a long way to go, but together we can save Australia.

Senator Ralph Babet, United Australia Party