Jim Penman: Calls on PM to set up Australian DOGE - to cut goverenment waste
Announcement posted by Invigorate PR 29 May 2025
Jim Penman, founder of Jim's Group, is calling on the federal government to establish an Australian Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
According to Penman, Elon Musk has made an appalling mess of DOGE in America, slashing government jobs recklessly without even knowing what the people did.
"Australia needs a proper DOGE, making government efficient and limiting it to functions that actually benefit society," Penman said.
"For a start, government is incredibly slack. Fifty years ago, I spent six months working for a federal government department. I barely had enough work to fill half my time. Then they asked me to take a new role which would occupy one day a week.
"The guy who had the job before me did just one job, which took me just half an hour a week!
"I actually asked for more to do and got no response, but when higher-ups visited, we were all told to 'look busy'."
Penman explained that a simple process like defining every job, working out the best way to do it and automating processes where possible, can cut most jobs in half. This is something that he understands well from his personal experience of running a business.
"Australian governments spend $232 billion a year on civil servants. Cut that by two thirds and each man, woman and child gets an extra $6,000," he said.
"That doesn't account for the biggest cost, which is bureaucrats doing jobs that impoverish society.
"For example, take building permissions, which typically take months and add tens of thousands of dollars to the cost of a home. In Texas, they have a system that allows certified architects and the like to approve buildings based on a clear zoning code. The cost to the taxpayer is nothing, but the benefit to home buyers in reduced prices is huge.
"Then there is zoning itself, which at least doubles the cost of housing and subsequently rents, by limiting what can be built and where.
"Compare the median house price in Houston ($345,000) with San Francisco ($1.45 million). The only difference is zoning."
Put this another way, if Australian cities had Houston prices then the median house would cost $531,000. The actual median is $1,036,000 in Melbourne and $1,474,000 in Sydney.
"We pay taxes to hire bureaucrats whose main function is to more than DOUBLE the cost of a house," Penman added.
Then occupational licensing, which multiple studies show has two major effects:
- Pushes up costs
- Reduces competition and thus makes service worse.
Think of what happened to the taxi industry when Uber and the rest broke a government-enforced monopoly:
- Better service
- Lower costs
- Better pay for drivers
"We pay millions of dollars to bureaucrats who make sure we pay more money for inferior service," Penman said.
"Then there is taxation and our mindlessly complex code with compliance costs amounting to tens of billions a year, much of it passed on to consumers as higher prices. Distorting the economy while enriching tax accountants and offshore tax havens.
"Higher land taxes would cost nothing to administer and are near impossible to evade. Income taxes could then be slashed or eliminated. We pay billions of dollars to bureaucrats to sap productivity and drive up costs with our arcane tax code.
"Then there is the NDIS, an ever-growing giant with massive rip offs and fraud at every level. Why not give the money direct to the people in need."
Australia needs DOGE.
About Jim's Group
Jim's Group was founded in 1989 and is now the largest franchise chain in Australia and New Zealand, With 5,500 franchisees in mowing, cleaning, dog wash, pest control, building inspections and forty plus other divisions.
Ph: 131 546
