Public service jobs safe as CLP pledges to cut costs

The number of Territory public servants has surged in the past year. Read what the new CLP government plans to do.

Former WA under-treasurer John Langoulant address the media at Parliament House on Tuesday, April 16, 2019. Gunner announced the Langoulant report.

Territory public service expenses surged more than five-times higher than targeted in the final year of the Labor Government, making a mockery of the previous administration’s own plan for budget repair released five-years earlier.

The Treasurer’s Annual Financial Report said general government employee expenses increased by 9.7 per cent from the 2022-23 figure, way above the 1.6 per cent target Labor forecast.

“The increase in employee expense growth in 2023-24 reflects the significant new operating commitments of the former government combined with demand pressures in hospital, fire and emergency services,” the TAFR said.

The TAFR said the Territory’s net debt was $9.02bn and the fiscal deficit was $1.24bn, with the next budget surplus not forecast until at least 2030-31.

Former WA under-treasurer John Langoulant address the media at Parliament House in 2019.

The Territory Labor Government’s final budget in May forecast net debt to hit $12.33bn by 2027-28.

In March 2019, economist John Langoulant released the blueprint for NT budget repair that then Chief Minister Michael Gunner had commissioned to stop the surge in government spending.

Territory debt was around $2bn when the previous CLP government was booted from power in 2016 and was forecast to reach $4.4bn by 2018-19.

The final Langoulant report called for “whole of government structural reforms to support the new fiscal strategy”.

This included increased financial accountability and transparency, improved financial management policies and processes, reform to improve sustainability and capacity, better organisation, a digital transformation and smarter spending for budget repair.

Treasurer Bill Yan and chief minister Lia Finocchiaro.

Despite this, public servant numbers increased to record levels under Labor, with the June quarter 2024 figures showing 22,706 full-time equivalent NT public servants, up 486 from the March quarter and 591 more than June 2023.

The previous government declined to comment on Monday but Mr Yan said the government would honour its election campaign pledge to not cut public sector jobs.

“We’ve been very clear from day one of the campaign, we will not be cutting public sector jobs and I’m on the record saying that over and over again,” Mr Yan said.

“We need our public sector employees to be working alongside our private industry to grow the Territory. The public sector is going to play an important role in how we drive our economy and how we grow our economy into the future because we need those people working alongside the (private) sector to get those projects out of the ground.

“What we need is a can do public sector, not a cannot do public sector.

“We’re working alongside our public sector employees with the chief executives to make sure that all those agencies are pushing in the same direction as private industry to grow the Northern Territory.”

Originally published as Public service jobs safe as CLP pledges to cut costs