Tasmania’s public service is essential to supporting the community’s needs, which is why today the Greens have announced that in balance of power we will fight to make sure there are no cuts to the public service workforce.
As they’ve tried to fund a new billion-dollar stadium in Hobart, the Liberals have announced they plan to take an axe to the public service. They established a Trump-like taskforce – cynically named the Efficiency and Productivity Unit – to slash government programs. They introduced a misguided hiring freeze. And they plan to cut 2,500 public service jobs in the years ahead.
Labor supports the same costly stadium as the Liberals. They’ve stood strong against privatisation, and good on them. But will they categorically rule out all cuts to public service jobs?
Let’s be clear – every single job in the public service matters. Paramedics can’t respond to emergency calls without the work of staff in areas like the communications centre, dispatch, rostering, and payroll. The same goes right across all government services – there are thousands of jobs most of us never think about, but that are critical in keeping the state running smoothly.
Any party or candidate running for Parliament should be able to answer a basic yes or no question: do you rule out any cuts to the public service? With essential services already struggling to keep up with the needs of Tasmanians, the answer should be easy. We need to see more investment in the public service, not less.
For the Greens, this is a no-brainer. In balance of power we will fight to scrap the Liberals’ ‘efficiency unit’, lift the hiring freeze, and guarantee there will be absolutely no cuts to the public service workforce.
A strong public service that delivers on community need should be a top priority for any government – not a billion-dollar stadium in Hobart.
