KEVIN Rudd's department will grow by more than 10 per cent next year as the Prime Minister asks Australians to tighten their belts.
Despite promises to take a "meataxe" to the public service, the bureaucracy is on track to swell by more than 10,000 under Mr Rudd's leadership, Budget papers reveal.
Liberal leader Tony Abbott said the Government wanted voters to believe it could suddenly switch "from being a crazy spender to being a great conserver of public finances".
"It's asking us to believe that it can change its nature from Paris Hilton to Uncle Scrooge. And that's the problem with this Budget - I just don't think it's believable," he said.
Treasurer Wayne Swan denied the projected return to surplus three years early relied too heavily on booming mining profits, via the proposed resources super profits tax.
He said fiscal discipline and the promise to cap spending at 2 per cent was the key.
"The money from the resource super profits tax is not responsible for the Budget coming back to surplus," Mr Swan said.
Mr Abbott will tonight deliver the traditional Budget reply speech.
Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner yesterday challenged Mr Abbott to detail where a Coalition government would save money.
"We are approaching the business end of the season where the Australian community are going to ask for some detail," he told Parliament.
Budget papers reveal the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet will swell by 86, boosting its ranks to 704.
The PM's office said more staff were needed for events such as next year's Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Perth.
Overall, the federal bureaucracy will grow by 383 in the coming financial year.
The overall head count will reach 258,704, up by 10,487 since the last election.
But Centrelink is forecast to shed 1800 staff in 2010-11 as falling unemployment cuts the number of people on welfare.
