Treasurer flags worker freeze change as Premier searches for social media gurus

Job advertisements – including for several roles in the Premier’s office – suggest the state’s public service hiring freeze is coming to an end. VOTE IN OUR POLL

Treasurer Cameron Dick says he’ll make the future of the state’s public service hiring freeze clearer when he releases his second Budget next week.

Asked on Sunday when Queensland’s public service employment cap introduced in response to the COVID economic downturn would be removed, he said he would “announce all of our positions on the public service in the Budget”, but that statistics would show the Government had been “growing the frontline”.

Mr Dick committed to maintain public service positions at July 2020 levels for 12 months, exempting frontline services, when he announced plans last year to save $3 billion across the public service.

But despite announcing internal recruitment only to fill non-frontline roles for 12 months, The Courier-Mail has seen jobs advertised externally, including several social media roles in Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk’s office.

A spokesman didn’t answer questions on whether social media roles were considered frontline but said the positions could be advertised because public service numbers were under the July 2020 cap.

Mr Dick’s comments followed a question to him on the floor of Labor’s state conference over “what feels like austerity” in the public service due to the hiring freeze.

The Together union delegate asked the Treasurer to explain how the non-replacement of workers and a reliance on labour hire contractors gelled with the government’s public priorities against austerity.

Mr Dick told the conference he guaranteed the upcoming Budget would “not be an austerity Budget”.

But his response was punctuated with calls for him to “answer the question”.

A motion later moved by Together called for the government to support and maintain the public service, with the delegate complaining that the government’s use of private hire companies and consultancy firms was “a waste of money”.

“We always seem to have money for private sector consultants but we never seem to have money to invest in the training and the skills development of our staff,” the conference heard.