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Nationals senator Bridget McKenzie says the “billions” of dollars spent to hire 36,000 additional public servants under Labor could be better spent after Opposition Leader Peter Dutton suggested the funding for the Coalition’s $9 billion Medicare bulk-billing commitment would come from the cuts.

While arguing the Albanese government has pumped up public servant numbers as a favour to unions, Dutton has not explained which departments would be targeted. Recent hiring has included expansions to the NDIS workforce to detect fraud and overpayments, Defence Department personnel and Health Department staff delivering urgent care clinics and overseeing aged care.

Speaking to Nine’s Today, McKenzie all but confirmed the Medicare bulk-billing policy was adopted to ward off a “Mediscare” campaign by the government, after Labor has increasingly drawn attention to Dutton’s legacy as health minister.

After host Karl Stefanovic questioned whether the Coalition had its own health policy prepared, McKenzie said it was timely to release their “absolute response” on the same day as Labor’s policy announcement, “because what we can’t have is another Mediscare campaign by a prime minister desperate to drag the Coalition down because he’s got no new ideas”.

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McKenzie continued that the 36,000 additional public servants hired since 2022 represented money the Coalition believes could be better spent.

“We also think that there’s been wasteful spending in excess of $100 billion of initiatives over the last three years that could be better prioritised,” she said.

Also on the panel was Greens senator Nick McKim, who said the Liberals were engaging in a “Donald Trump-style campaign”.

“We’re really worried about a descent into far-right extremism in Australia led by Peter Dutton, in the same way that we’re seeing it in the US,” McKim said.