O’Farrell slashes jobs, flags privatisations

September 16, 2011
Issue 
NSW Premier Barry O'Farrell.

The Barry O’Farrell Coalition government has promised it will make “New South Wales number one” again. We are assured this will mean improving transport, health and education infrastructure and strengthening the public sector that delivers these services to the people of NSW.

The “horror budget” some media promised was delivered on September 6. This budget does little to improve public services. Instead, the state’s fiscal output rests on strengthening private sector spending.

This is to be delivered by closing three of the state’s prisons, privatising Sydney Ferries, selling the Sydney desalination plant and outsourcing road maintenance services.

It is expected that additional budget announcements, detailing a further $8 billion in cuts, will be made over the coming months.

Outsourcing of information and communication technology jobs and further privatisations are on the cards.

Former premier Nick Greiner, now head of Infrastructure NSW, believes this would be “absolutely unavoidable” if the government intends to keep its promise to fund infrastructure projects.

Greiner said on September 16 that to fund improvements to infrastructure “you’ve got to get the money from somewhere”.

That is, somewhere other than the state’s senior executive service, who were afforded a generous 4% pay rise late last year under the previous ALP government, taking the maximum senior executive annual salary to almost $500,000.

The stage for September’s budget was set as far back as March 29, only days after O’Farrell’s election victory.

He announced a fictional $5.2 billion budget “black hole” and told the public tough decisions needed to be made to fill it.

The Labor opposition quickly jumped on these reports, claiming up to 80,000 public sector jobs were in the firing line.

So when the budget was handed down, little fanfare was made of the 5000 public sector jobs to go.

Even the assistant general secretary of the Public Service Association, Steve Turner, told the September 7 Sydney Morning Herald this number was “heartening” because it was lower than the rumoured 20,000 job losses.

Yet this figure represents more than the total workforce employed in Community Services (formerly the Department of Community Services, now part of the new Department of Family and Community Services.)

The 5000 jobs cuts are to be made by “voluntary redundancies” of employees the government identifies as excess.

The policy for managing excess staff was implemented on August 1, in preparation for September’s budget.

In cases where the initial retrenchment offer is not accepted, the policy allows staff a three-month window to seek redeployment. If unsuccessful, they will be retrenched on a significantly reduced package.



The government has promised to deliver improvements to the state’s services and provide value for money to the NSW taxpayer. These promises will be achieved by sacking thousands of public servants and reducing services to those most in need.

The Department of Family and Community Services has acknowledged it is characterised by growth — growth in demand for disability and ageing services, a growth in housing crises with more than 43,000 people on the Housing NSW waiting list, and a 15% a year growth of the 17,400 children now in out-of-home care.

The state budget passed on these costs by raising public housing rents and lowering the allowance paid to foster carers.

To fund improvements to frontline services, support roles will be cut across the public sector. This means frontline staff will instead be tied up doing this work.

NSW Health is to lose 300 administrative jobs, and a further 350 will be shed from transport services.

An additional 350 jobs will be lost from corrective services. This brings the 5000 job loss figure to 6000.

Add to this the job losses previously announced and additional jobs to go that are being identified within state departments.

The 2010 public sector staffing freeze remains in place. This prevents any non-frontline jobs from being filled and has created numerous vacancies. Public sector jobs, therefore, were already artificially low.

The NSW Treasurer Mike Baird announced in his budget that further cuts to the public sector workforce will occur through staff turnover and natural attrition — that is, not replacing workers who resign or retire.

The 2.5% public sector wage cap and forced “productivity savings” is expected to save the government $2 billion a year.

However, $1.5 billion of this is already eaten away with poker machine tax breaks provided to pubs and clubs, payroll tax relief, and the $7000 handout for families to move away from Sydney.

Even the thousands of new jobs promised to be generated in the private sector statewide are in doubt, with employment in fact decreasing.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show 10,000 jobs were lost across Australia in August, full-time work was lost to part-time positions and the private sector is becoming circumspect about future recruiting, warning 2011 will be the worst year for job growth in 19 years.

This puts into question the NSW budget’s revenue forecast and the expected return to surplus.

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