In an opinion article for the Sydney Morning Herald, shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh made the case for a strong public service and argued against targets for reducing staff numbers. He said the public sector was already relatively small by international standards, claiming the federal public service employed fewer people than Woolworths. RMIT ABC Fact Check found Mr Leigh is on shaky ground. Measured by total employees, the Woolworths Group ' including all of its Australian operations ' employs more Australians than the federal public service. On the other hand, Woolworths supermarkets do not. The public service employed 152,095 people at the end of June 2017. This is the figure cited by Mr Leigh, which Fact Check accepts. When it comes to Woolworths, however, the numbers are less clear-cut. It appears the wider group employed around 183,500 people in Australia at the end of June 2017, while its Australian supermarkets currently employ 115,000 people. Because Mr Leigh did not specify what he meant by "Woolworths", it would be unclear to readers which of these figures apply. On that basis it is impossible to assess the data behind his claim.

Verdict: Shaky Ground