Public servants in Berejiklian’s line of fire

NSW Premier plans to slash thousands of public service jobs, flags softening of lockout laws.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in her Sydney office. Picture: John Feder

Gladys Berejiklian plans to slash thousands of public service jobs and has flagged a potential softening of Sydney’s lockout laws, saying they are a “work in progress”.

The NSW Premier also wants to change cabinet meetings from weekly to fortnightly, with a key “leadership team” of senior minister­s to meet in between.

There has been speculation that Keep Sydney Open’s Tyson Koh and former Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm will hold the balance of power in the upper house when preferences from last month’s election are distributed on Monday. Both favour changes in the lockout laws.

On those laws, Ms Berejiklian said: “It’s always a work in progress … the laws were put in for a reason, we’ve relaxed them a little bit … as a government we’ll always do what’s right for our citizens.”

She also dismissed the fact that she faces an upper house so ­hostile the government could be unable to pass any laws.

“This is the other fallacy — that governments need legislation to get things done,” Ms ­Berejiklian said. “I remember when I was transport minister you could argue it was quite a ­reformist time in that portfolio and in four years I only put one act through parliament.”

It was clear Ms Berejiklian aimed to introduce efficiencies and public sector jobs cuts based on the movement to eight ­“clusters” of the 320,000-strong NSW public service.

“I haven’t put a number on it (the job cuts) but … there won’t be a single job (cut) in the regions and we’re enhancing our front line,” the Premier said.

“I have no issue with the public service growing so long as it’s teachers, nurses. But in the back office there’ll be substantial changes.”

The Premier declared Scott Morrison could win the federal election, saying while it was a “challenge”, “I’m a firm believer in the fact that a week’s a long time in politics so you never know what’s around the corner”.

“I would say that people focus on outcomes much more close to the time of the election,” she said.

Ms Berejiklian, who says she will campaign for the Prime Minister, was potentially referencing her own near-death experience where she was 50-50 in the statewide polls for more than a year but won more than 52 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote and a two-seat majority in the Legislative Assembly.

Internal party polling also had Ms Berejiklian’s government improvi­ng its position by three percentage points in marginal seats in the final fortnight of the campaign, partly due to the releas­e of anti-Asian immigration comments by former opposition leader Michael Daley and his gaffe on Sky News, where he could not remember the cost of his signature education policy.

Ms Berejiklian said of Mr Daley’s plight yesterday: “I don’t like to kick someone when they’re down. I think he’s gone through enough. But I don’t think there’s anyone in the opposition who has a sufficient grasp of the detail to do as good a job as our government.’’

Of Mr Daley’s comments capture­d on tape, the Premier said: “I believe in the inherent good of the people of NSW and they can see through offensive comments and hypocrisy, and I think that was demonstrated.”

Ms Berejiklian has raised eyebrows at the start of the term by consolidating all of the acts dealt with by cabinet in the hands of just eight ministers, including herself.

She insisted again yesterday that the measure was temporary and soon acts would be handed out to her expanded cabinet of 24.