The failure of the Premier, Will Hodgman, today to reiterate the Liberals pledge of no forced redundancies in light of yesterday’s announcement by the Treasurer that more public sector jobs, raises serious concerns that the government is positioning itself to break more election promises while blaming others.
“The Treasurer’s statement yesterday made it clear that the Liberals are positioning to slash Tasmanian public sector workers three times the amount they initially flagged before the state election,” Greens Leader Kim Booth said.
“Yet they have been silent on how or when they intend to make these cuts estimated to be 1500 jobs.”
“On one hand the Liberals try and blame the previous government for failing to meet the target reductions in the state service, utilising the mechanisms of natural attrition, vacancy control, redeployment and voluntary redundancies for example, yet now they expect Tasmanians to believe that they can cut even more jobs relying on the same methods.”
“The Premier must answer whether he will be relying on the same jobs reduction strategy that they previously argued was flawed, or is there a different plan such as introducing forced redundancies?”
“Tasmanians need to hear the Premier state clearly that despite the recent revision from 500 jobs to potentially 1500 there will be no forced redundancies.”
“It is cruel and irresponsible to dump this cloud of uncertainty and fear on Tasmanian workers and their families, and then refuse to detail how and when the job cuts will be implemented.”
“This uncertainty will also negatively impact on the local economy as people uncertain about their financial future naturally rethink how much they are spending and start to pare it back to bare essentials,” Mr Booth said.