Public sector to axe 1000 jobs for $4 billion in budget savings
Victoria’s bloated public sector has avoided the deepest cuts suggested in Helen Silver’s review; Only 29 of 500 public institutions and boards of directors were dismissed.
The Allan government will eliminate 332 administrative and senior technical jobs in the Victorian Civil Service and a total of 1,000 public sector jobs, about half the number proposed by the state’s former top bureaucrat.
The government claims these measures, combined with reduced use of consultants and office space freed up by civil servants working from home, will save the budget more than $4 billion over the next four years.
Among the most significant changes, VicHealth, Victoria’s independent health promotion agency, will cease to exist as an independent organization and be absorbed into the Department of Health.
Infrastructure Victoria will be “refocused” on a reduced budget after the government rejected its recommendation to scrap the review.
Sustainability Victoria, Pavement Safety Victoria, the Trade and Investment Board, Latrobe Health Council, Public Sector Commission Victoria Advisory Board, Marine and Coastal Council Victoria and the Road Safety Camera Commission and Reference Group will be liquidated.
A number of existing organizations will be merged, with Recycling Victoria being incorporated into the Environmental Protection Authority and multiple registration boards being merged into a new Business and Operations Regulator.
The government rejected a proposal to halt the opening of government-funded Early Learning and Child Care Centers and place them in the hands of private providers; This reform would save more than $350 million.
He also opposed a recommendation for a wholesale restructuring of the state’s utilities; This would result in the 14 water boards being split into three.
The Independent Review of the Victorian Public Service, commissioned in February shortly after Treasurer Jaclyn Symes took office, called on the government to take “urgent action” to curb the spiraling growth of public sector organizations since the pandemic.
“There are good reasons for establishing organizations for the purpose of achieving a policy goal at a particular point in time, and these organizations employ large numbers of talented and dedicated staff,” the Silver review said.
“However, the growing number of public organizations and their complexity creates duplication and confusion and stifles public and private sector productivity.”
The report found that the significant direct and indirect costs to the government of maintaining these bodies and the extraordinary 3,200 public boards and committees (more than any other state or territory) undermine efforts to reduce public spending.
Symes said the measures adopted by the government would make the public sector more efficient while preventing frontline redundancies.
“Front-line workers are outside the scope of this review,” he said.
“Bringing together organizations with similar functions makes it faster and easier for individuals and businesses to interact with government by providing cleaner points of contact and fewer processes and forms to deal with.”
All of the recommendations of the Silver review, presented to the government in July, would deliver net budget savings of around $5 billion.
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Chip Le Grand leads our state politics reporting team. He had previously served as the newspaper’s chief correspondent and was a journalist with 30 years of experience.Connect via email.
