Treasurer Guy Barnett announces hiring freeze on non-essential roles in State Service

Tasmanian Treasurer Guy Barnett has announced a hiring freeze on non-essential roles in the State Service, saying the move will make the public sector “more productive and more efficient”.

Treasurer Guy Barnett. Picture: Nikki Davis-Jones

A hiring freeze on non-essential roles has been implemented in the State Service, with Treasurer Guy Barnett unable to rule out public sector job cuts ahead of the budget being handed down in May.

It comes as the Rockliff government attempts to repair the state’s finances and respond to escalating debt.

Mr Barnett announced the hiring freeze on Sunday, saying it was now formally in effect.

It’s not yet clear which specific roles will be deemed non-essential but the government says frontline workers such as police, nurses, paramedics, and firefighters, as well as teachers, will not be affected by the freeze.

Treasurer Guy Barnett and Premier Jeremy Rockliff. Picture: Stephanie Dalton

The classification of non-essential workers will be determined by the secretaries of the various government agencies, in consultation with the Head of the State Service, Kathrine Morgan-Wicks.

“Of course, all this has got to be consistent with maintaining the public service for Tasmania and those decisions made by those secretaries in consultation with the Head of the State Service will need to take that into account,” Mr Barnett said.

The Treasurer said the public service headcount had grown by about 18 per cent over the last five years, including the Covid pandemic, while the state’s population had only grown about 5 per cent over the same period.

“We need a right-sized public service at the right shape to deliver for Tasmania what’s best for Tasmania. We need to be more productive, more efficient,” he said.

Parliament Square, the hub of the State Service in Hobart. Picture: Chris Kidd

“So this hiring freeze of non-essential workers within the State Service going forward, starting from today, will provide that certainty going forward in terms of working through, between now and [budget day] on the 29th of May, when more advice and decisions will be made at the budget time.”

Mr Barnett said the hiring freeze should not come as a surprise, suggesting the move had been foreshadowed in the 2024 state election campaign, as well as last year’s budget and the recent Revised Estimates Report.

The government has been unable to confirm how much the hiring freeze will save taxpayers and Mr Barnett did not rule out job cuts come budget time despite being given repeated opportunities to do so at a media conference on Sunday.

“We want to grow our economy, we want to create more jobs in our community, we want to ensure that the best interests of Tasmanians are always at the forefront of our minds,” he said.

There are about 36,000 State Service employees, including full-time, part-time, casual, and contract positions.

Labor MP Josh Willie.

Labor Treasury spokesman Josh Willie said the government had “finally admitted that they have destroyed the Tasmanian budget”.

“Our state’s finances have never been worse and now [the Liberals] are implementing a blanket freeze across the public service, which will lead to inefficiencies and poor service delivery,” he said.

“Rather than getting unions and business in the room and making strategic decisions about public service delivery, they’re taking the easy [way] out, they’re outsourcing the problem to bureaucrats and it’s going to mean poorer services for Tasmanians.”