Premier Lara’s waste crackdown … may have finally arrived

Wasn’t the word from Premier Lara that she’d be cracking down on waste?

So why, last week, were there are 164 job vacancies advertised on the state government’s own website, jobs.tas.gov.au ?

Here’s a non-job, for starters (with a handy $104,522 salary), as manager of the Adaptation Unit (what??). No formal requirements, naturally.

Department of Premier and Cabinet
Tasmanian Climate Change Office

Manager Adaptation Unit (001739)

Applications Close:– Friday, 18 February 2011.

Salary:– $97,036 – $104,522 p.a.

Tasmanian State Service Award, General Stream Band 8.
Permanent full-time.
Location:– Hobart.

Duties:– Within a broad strategic framework, lead the development of the Government’s strategy to help Tasmania adapt to climate change. Provide informed authoritative advice to the Director, Minister, Premier and the Government on the development and implementation of whole-of-government policy on climate change adaptation.Work with other agencies, local government, business, industry sectors and the community to develop vulnerability assessments and action plans. Build capacity across Government to recognise and respond to the policy and planning challenges of climate change adaptation.

Desirable Requirements:– Tertiary qualifications

Enquiries to Wendy Spencer, Director, Tasmanian Climate Change Office, Department of Premier and Cabinet, phone (03) 6270 5505, email Wendy.Spencer@dpac.tas.gov.au.

Applications to Matthew Abey, HR Consultant, Department of Premier and Cabinet, GPO Box 123, Hobart Tasmania 7001, phone (03) 6270 5451, email job.application@dpac.tas.gov.au.

Mercury Monday, Giddings freezes job vacancies

SUE NEALES and MATT SMITH
The Mercury
Mon 21 Feb

JOB freezes to prevent vacant positions being filled are set to be imposed across the entire Tasman-ian public service.

Premier Lara Giddings has confirmed a centralised process will begin in the next fortnight, restraining the ability of any government department or manager to replace staff who have retired or quit.

Ms Giddings said only absolutely essential positions that had been vacated at short notice -such an intensive-care nurses working at the Royal Hobart Hospital -could be filled without the need for a senior department manager to get approval from a central public-service body.

The new Recruitment Business Case process all departments must abide by before employing any new staff will be administered by the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

The vacancy control program will be directly overseen by Frank Ogle, director of the government’s Public Sector Management Office.

The tough measures have been forced by the crisis in the government’s finances, with $200 million to be shaved from public service expenditure annually.

Unless costs can be cut through measures such as job freezes and vacancy control, the Premier has warned that as many as 2300 of the state’s 25,000 public servants may lose their jobs.

Health and Human Services Department head David Roberts became the first senior bureaucrat to take action last week. He sent an email to all 12,000 employees of his department on Thursday, ordering a jobs freeze for the “next week or so”.

The move was a result of an order to the big-spending health department from the Premier’s office to prune 3 per cent of its annual budget immediately.

Mr Roberts told staff it was necessary to assess all current activities and programs within the department in order to determine how it could reduce its costs.

An immediate recruitment freeze and halt to the issuing of any new contracts was part of the health department’s announcement.

Mr Roberts said the jobs freeze would remain in place until the centralised recruitment process was in force.

A department spokesman said the freeze did not include essential positions critical to patient and client care.

Liberal leader Will Hodg-man accused Ms Giddings of abandoning long-held Labor principles not to sack front line public servants such as nurses, teachers and police officers.

(scan)

http://www.themercury.com.au/article/2011/02/21/208841_tasmania-news.html

(Mercury 9-5 online now on duty)