Public service fears more job cuts from Commission of Audit

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Plans by the Abbott government's Commission of Audit to cut tens of thousands more federal public service jobs remain on the table following Tuesday’s budget cuts.

The bureaucracy faces a nervous six months until the "third and most comprehensive phase of consolidation in the number of government bodies", to be announced by the government in the mid-year budget update handed down around November.

And new Finance Department figures show Treasurer Joe Hockey's budget axe will fall quickly on the Commonwealth workforce: 8200 full-time public service jobs – nearly half the total slated losses – to go within a year.



Many public servants in agencies or programs earmarked for abolition by the Commission of Audit but spared by Tuesday's budget believe they have no more than a "stay of execution" after the federal government said that much of the commission's plans were still being considered.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/public-service/public-service-fears-more-job-cuts-from-commission-of-audit-20140516-zrejj.html#ixzz31s08vupB

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1. Up to 400 jobs to go at Prime Minister and Cabinet Department

Up to 400 jobs will be cut at the elite Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet and so far there has been a shortfall in the number of workers interested in taking voluntary packages.

Staff have been told between 350 and 400 staff will need to go following Tuesday’s budget.

About 200 staff have expressed interest in voluntary redundancies and another 100 have departed without being backfilled.

This leaves 50 to 100 positions which need to be identified and surrendered between now and the end of June 2015.

Department secretary Ian Watt, who receives a pay rise this July along with other Canberra mandarins, addressed staff about the job losses on Thursday and workers say management was confident this would happen by natural attrition.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/public-service/up-to-400-jobs-to-go-at-prime-minister-and-cabinet-department-20140516-zrf7q.html#ixzz31s0MxfFM

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2. ATO bosses warn forced redundancies may be used

Forced redundancies will be used, if needed, to cut the jobs of thousands of public servants at the Australian Taxation Office, bosses have warned.

The nation’s tens of thousands of tax officials were offered psychological counselling on Thursday as they were told of fresh budget cuts, redundancies and greater workloads for those left behind.

The ATO has appointed senior bureaucrat Jane King to manage the mass-redundancy process, with the initial task of finding an extra 2100 job cuts in five months, with another 1700 to follow in the next four years.


There will also be cuts to IT and travel budgets and a warning from Ms King, the former boss of ATO call centres, that more tax offices around the country might close.


Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/national/public-service/ato-bosses-warn-forced-redundancies-may-be-used-20140515-zrdqv.html#ixzz31s0jqmMI

[Matilda]

3. I don't know how Abbott thinks for a minute that he'll get a second term.

Even if the electorate does have a short memory, if people are hurting, they won't forget.

Abbott calls the budget tough - he doesn't seem to get that it's the unfairness that is causing anger. I can't see how that will change. He has broken every single promise and targeted the most vulnerable. Cuts to the public service don't just hurt the public service; they hurt the public.

What we need to see now is a plan from Labor as to how they'll tackle the economy – so far we've heard only mission statements – very good mission statements, but they're not policy.