Tasmania to axe 1500 public servants’ jobs

TASMANIA will lose 1500 public service jobs over the next four years.

Tasmania to axe 1500 jobs

TASMANIA will lose up to 1500 public service jobs over the next four years, despite the new Liberal government pledging to limit losses to 500 before last month’s election.

Treasurer Peter Gutwein yesterday said that in addition to the 500 job cuts the Liberal Party took as policy to the March state election, 1000 jobs were still to go under the previous Labor-Greens government’s austerity measures.

“In the absence of other savings, this 1000 FTE (full-time equivalent) reduction is already implicitly contained within the budget and forward estimates,” Mr Gutwein said. “They are Labor and the Greens’ job cuts, not ours.

“This is because while in the 2011-12 budget Labor and the Greens committed to a reduction of 1700 FTEs, to date the ­reduction has been less than 700 FTEs. Our commitment of a ­further reduction of 500 FTEs has not changed.”

Mr Gutwein’s claims are supported by a Treasury report ­released on Monday. “Further savings, equivalent to in excess of 1000 FTEs, need to be achieved,” the Treasury analysis says.

The Community and Public Sector Union said Treasury was incorrect. The union said information provided by departments to parliament in June last year showing 1640 jobs had gone has planned. CPSU general secretary Tom Lynch told The Australian he suspected Mr Gutwein — who commissioned the Treasury report — had conspired with his department to justify savage cuts beyond the 500 pledged at the election.

“I don’t think Tasmanians will put up with this — people were deliberately misled (at the election) just a few months ago,” Mr Lynch said.

He warned cuts of the scale now flagged would destroy the state’s embryonic economic recovery by destroying confidence and dampening spending.

They would also involve cuts to vital services, including health, child protection and access to national parks. “These are not just bureaucrats being pushed out the door — the jobs to be cut are people delivering services to the community every day,” he said.

Mr Gutwein stood by the Treasury figures as more reliable than the departmental figures tabled in annual reports, which failed to factor-in an increase in employment since June last year.

Labor opposition leader Bryan Green said the cuts were down to the Liberals: “The Liberals had the budget situation made clear to them … but still went on a pre-election spending spree.”