Public sector numbers 'already declining' A FORMER senior bureaucrat has rejected suggestions of a bloated public service, saying there's been a steady decline in public sector numbers as a proportion of the total workforce. Opposition leader Tony Abbott has suggested a coalition government would slash the public service by 12,000 positions over two years to save money. However Terry Moran, current president of the Institute of Public Administration and the former head of the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet, said the public sector had already shrunk. Since 1984 there has been a steady and large decline in the public sector as a proportion of the total workforce, from 26 per cent to 16 per cent. This is the Commonwealth, state government and local government," he told ABC radio. The biggest decline has really been at the Commonwealth level followed by the states and territories. Mr Moran says the public sector could shrink further but that could rely on achieving efficiencies as well as ministers deciding what they want the public sector workforce to do. He said a coalition government could reduce Commonwealth public sector numbers by getting the public sector in the states to take more responsibility for service delivery.