Thousands of public service jobs in Victoria are to be slashed after a review ordered by the state’s new treasurer, who has warned “difficult decisions” need to be made to bring the budget under control.
Jaclyn Symes and the premier, Jacinta Allan, on Thursday announced an independent review into the Victorian public service (VPS), to be headed by Helen Silver, a banking executive and former head of the Department of Premier and Cabinet under John Brumby and Ted Baillieu.
Silver will provide recommendations to “reduce the VPS back towards its pre-pandemic share of employment”, according to the terms of reference. The review will also identify programs that may be streamlined or cut in their entirety.
The treasurer said this would equate to 5% to 6% of the workforce, or between 2,000 to 3,000 jobs.
“There’ll be hard decisions for government to make but I’m determined that this work can’t be for nothing,” Symes said.
She said Silver will provide an interim report in April, to be reflected in her first budget in May.
A final report will be delivered to government by the end of June, which Symes committed to making public. She said she “wanted” to be in a position to accept all its recommendations.
“It’s needed to address the budget recurrent problem that we have,” Symes said. “This is what the purpose of the review is all about.”
The terms of reference also ask Silver to “identify overlaps, inefficiencies, functions and programs within the VPS that can be streamlined or eliminated”, provide recommendations to “improve processes” and examine “the appropriate levels of executives”.
The state’s integrity agencies and the department that manages parliament won’t be included in the review – but ministerial offices will be.
Allan stressed frontline roles – such as child protection workers, nurses, police officers and teachers – would also not be part of the review.
“This review is about helping to make sure that the public services delivered here in Victoria continue to be focused on those frontline services, on those priorities of working people and Victorian families – investing in good schools, in hospitals, in safer communities,” she said.
In the 2023/24 budget, the former treasurer Tim Pallas made plans to reduce the public service by 3,000 to 4,000 workers – which was then described as a return to “pre-pandemic levels” – to save $1.2bn. He also committed to scaling back the use of labour hire and consultancy firms.
Instead, public-sector employees in the state grew between July 2023 and June 2024 from 54,760 to 54,839. The 2024/25 wage bill totalled $36.53bn – almost double the $18.8bn when Labor first came to office in 2014.
In 2024/25 budget, Allan’s first, other “savings and efficiencies”, totalling $1.79bn, included ending the sick pay guarantee, and cutting public-sector office space and government advertising.
Symes, who took on the role in late December after Pallas’ resignation, conceded these “previous attempts haven’t worked”.
“I’m the new treasurer of the state,” she said. “I’m determined that this process will deliver results.”
The Community and Public Sector Union secretary, Karen Batt, accused the government of “mimicking” Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
“VPS has already delivered over $5bn in savings from the last three budgets’ crazy, ill thought-through proposals, [which] end up costing the government more as our population booms and demand for services grows,” Batt said. “We’ll fight it.”
The opposition treasury spokesperson, James Newbury, described the review as a “hoax” that would not deliver outcomes.
“Jacinta Allan is an absolute queen of covering not governing,” he said.
