The coalition will offer voluntary redundancies to public servants in its bid to shrink the bureaucracy, but leader Peter Dutton has dodged questions about how many workers will go under that scheme.

Campaign spokesman James Paterson revealed on Friday natural attrition and voluntary redundancies would be used to achieve $7 billion in savings each year.

It marks a shift in how the opposition plans to get rid of 41,000 Commonwealth workers, after previously touting forced lay-offs, before pivoting to hiring freezes and job cuts through attrition.

“We will cap the size of the Australian public service and reduce the numbers back to the levels they were three years ago through natural attrition and voluntary redundancies,” Senator Paterson told ABC radio.

Mr Dutton wouldn’t say how many redundancies would be offered when pressed on the issue.

“We have worked with the (Parliamentary Budget Office) to look at where we can have an employment freeze and where we have the natural attrition that helps us achieve the 41,000 that we’re talking about,” he told reporters in Perth.

Australia’s military would be exempt from the freeze and frontline services jobs would be unaffected by the proposal, senior coalition figures have said.

But Public Service Minister Katy Gallagher said the billions of dollars in planned cuts would lead to job and service losses.

“This rubbish that it’s all going to be found by attrition has been put to bed today,” she said.

“It is actually redundancies, which means sacking of public servants.

“The real kicker is they’re not going to tell you … where they’re going from until after the election.”

The latest revelations about the coalition’s public service plan came after it was revealed Mr Dutton was the target of a teenager’s alleged terror plot.

The opposition leader said his first thoughts went to the safety of his family after he was notified of the 2024 plan, adding he had never felt unsafe in his job.

“It hasn’t stopped me from doing anything and it won’t on this campaign,” he said.