The Andrews government will slash up to 4000 public sector jobs over the next year as it seeks to repair the state’s finances and rein in spending.
Treasurer Tim Pallas outlined a $31.5 billion COVID debt repayment plan in Tuesday’s budget and vowed to bring the public sector back towards pre-pandemic levels.
The government will find $2.1 billion in savings as part of the repayment plan by cutting corporate and back-office jobs. This is on top of the $500 million it identified ahead of the November state election.
“Further savings will be achieved through reductions in labour hire and consultancy expenditure,” the budget papers state. “These savings are designed to make government more efficient and will not affect frontline services.”
The public sector wages bill,however,will slightly increase over the forward estimates. It will grow from $33.8 billion in this financial year to $38.2 billion in 2026-27.
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“We need to get back from post-crisis environment to[business as usual],” Pallas said. “We would anticipate,essentially,the decisions around this will be made by secretaries in consulting with their departments.”
Pallas said the government would work with the union to help redeploy public servants who lose their jobs. He did not reveal the extent of the cuts,but said marketing and communications jobs,as well as ministerial advisers,would be axed.
Department of Treasury and Finance secretary David Martine earlier this year ordered heads of government departments to detail plansto cut their budgets by 10 per cent without “harming frontline services” – a move that could mean more than 5000 public servants would lose their jobs.