A job a day: public sector job cuts target revealed

The state government will need to reduce the size of the public service by one worker a day for nearly eight years in order to reach its own target for “right sizing” the state workforce.

Labor leader MP Dean Winter and CPSU chief Thirza White speak to the media about budget cuts in Liverpool Street Hobart on Wednesday, February 5, 2025.

The state government will need to reduce the size of the public service by the equivalent of one worker a day for nearly eight years in order to reach its target for “right sizing” the state workforce.

Figures contained in the Revised Estimates Report indicate that the government wants to shrink the public sector workforce by around 6.6 per cent by 2032. It grew by 4.7 per cent last year.

The target requires the government to reduce staff numbers from 5692 per 100,000 Tasmanian residents to 5315.

The state service employed 36,963 people in June 2024 meaning a 6.6 per cent reduction by June 2032 would equate to the loss of nearly 2,500 people in just over 2900 days.

The government has repeatedly stated frontline positions will be spared without offering a definition of “frontline”.

Labor leader Dean Winter said the Tasmanian public deserved transparency.

“Jeremy Rockliff needs to finally start telling the truth about what is going on with his budget mess,” he said.

“The Liberals have trashed the budget, taking Tasmania from having no net debt to $10bn of net debt in 10 years.

“Labor has fought to uncover the truth about Jeremy Rockliff’s budget cuts and we’ll continue to do so.

“They have announced the cuts but won’t say where they are coming from.”

A government spokesman said there would be no sharp reductions.

Health Minister Jacquie Petrusma says her department was growing, not cutting.

“We’ve always said Tasmania needs to have the right-sized public service — one that operates as efficiently as possible, meets the needs of the community and provides value for money.

“The state service will continue to actively manage the size and capacity of its workforce using vacancy control, redeployment, voluntary redundancies and workforce renewal incentives.

“What we won’t be doing is a slash and burn approach that sends thousands of Tasmanians to the dole queue like Labor did when they sacked a nurse a day for nine months.”

Health Minister Jacquie Petrusma said her department was growing, not cutting.

“I’m actually on a recruitment blitz,” she said.

“So whether it’s dental dentists or oral health therapists, whether it’s doctors, nurses, paramedics, allied health professionals, we want to hear from you and we want to hear from you now.

“We’ve already recruited an extra 2300 healthcare workers to the workforce since April last year. So every week that goes by, the numbers go up even more.”