SA Liberals promise to slash ministerial adviser jobs

MINISTERIAL staff numbers would be slashed if the Liberals win next month’s election as part of a waste-cutting savings drive, Opposition treasury spokesman Rob Lucas says.

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MINISTERIAL staff numbers would be slashed if the Liberals win next month’s election as part of a waste-cutting savings drive, Opposition treasury spokesman Rob Lucas says.

The Advertiser can reveal the Liberals will on Thursday commit to reducing the “excessive number of ministerial staff and spin doctors” employed by the State Government if they win.

Reliable figures on how many staff are employed by ministerial offices are difficult to obtain. The Government once a year publishes the salaries and positions of political appointments, but also seconds help from departments.

Mr Lucas said the Liberals would cut 50 positions, from a total army of ministerial staff he believed was now over 250.

He said that would save taxpayers $20 million over the four-year Budget period.

“Whilst critical health and education services have been cut everywhere, the Weatherill Government has wasted millions on bloated staff numbers in ministerial offices,” he said.

Mr Lucas said the Government had fought his attempts to obtain a complete list of ministerial staff in each office.

He said 15 staff for a minister would be “more than enough” to run an office properly, and claimed some currently had more than 20.

The Liberals have already made hundreds of millions of dollars worth of campaign pledges, including commitments to slash payroll tax and the emergency services levy as well as support the construction of a new power interconnector to the eastern states.

Mr Lucas said the Liberals would reveal further savings measures to offset their spending commitments, with a full costings document to be released in the final week of the campaign.

He said the Liberals were likely to include an efficiency dividend similar to that used by Labor, which specifies a sum of savings that departmental heads must find, as well as particular program cuts.

“It will be a combination of all of those factors that will be part of our final package that we’ll put out in that last week document,” Mr Lucas said.