Peter Gutwein:Public Sector Jobs

Labor needs to be upfront with Tasmanians and take responsibility for the budget mess they have left behind.

We will deliver on our promise to reduce the size of the public service by 500 over two years; and we are working hard not to have to deliver the Labor-Green promise to cut an additional 1000 jobs.

Labor and the Greens were unable to keep their promise to reduce the public sector by 1700 FTEs and they hid this from Tasmanians.

Treasury’s own words say;

“In the 2011-12 Budget, the then Government announced a budget savings target which was equivalent to a reduction of approximately1700 FTEs, by 2014-15. Since June 2011, a reduction of approximately 900 FTEs has occurred across all agencies. However, after allowing for seasonal fluctuations in education entity staffing, Treasury estimates that a structural reduction of less than 700 FTEs has occurred to the end of February 2014. Since the original savings target was established, there has been a further deterioration in the Forward Estimate and, given current wage and salary increments, and in the absence of other savings strategies, the current Forward Estimates imply that further savings, equivalent to in excess of 1000 FTEs, need to be achieved by agencies.”

Labor failed to meet their savings target.

They failed to reduce the public sector by the target they set.

They failed to be honest with Tasmanians about their cover-up and they are failing to take responsibility for their mess now.

The Liberal Government was voted in to fix their mess, and we will deliver on our commitments.
Peter Gutwein, Treasurer