Leaders within Victoria’s public service set to bed down where jobs cuts will come

Redundancies are looming for thousands of workers in Victoria’s public service as senior leaders work through the details this week.

Senior government leaders within Victoria’s public service are set to bed down where jobs cuts will come this week after the government last month pledged to scrap 4000 roles.

In the state budget, Treasurer Tim Pallas said the Andrews government would bring the public service down to “pre-pandemic levels”.

Although the state promised 4000 jobs would go and none of them would be frontline roles, there has been no detail of where these cuts would come from.

The Herald Sun understands these arrangements are now being worked out and announcements of redundancies are looming. Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary Jeremi Moule is part of these discussions.

Tim Pallas says the public service will be brought down to ‘pre-pandemic levels’. Picture: David Geraghty

It comes not long after the state announced it would merge its agencies for the West Gate Tunnel and the North East Link into a larger agency called Major Road Projects Authority.

At the time, Deputy Premier Jacinta Allan said the decision was partly based on the government’s plans to cut the public service, although the state said no jobs would be lost short term.

The government has also said it will close the Malmsbury youth justice centre.

The public sector union has lashed out at the Andrews government over the planned cuts, with CPSU state secretary Karen Batt at one point calling on them to look at pausing Big Build projects instead.