Australia – Governmental frontline services hit

PUBLIC servants in temporary positions were cut by the Newman Government despite internal warnings about the impact on frontline services.

Documents obtained by The Courier-Mail under Right to Information laws have for the first time given revealing insights into the kinds of positions that were cut.

Rather than desk-bound Brisbane bureaucrats being axed, the documents from within the Department of National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing reveal a purge of positions from across the state, forcing rangers to deal with the public rather than patrol parks.

The cuts in the department, which do not include the 130 permanent department positions which were later lost, were replicated in every department under the Government’s euphemistically titled “Establishment Management Program”.

Many of the cuts to temporary contract staff, including some who had held their position for years, appear at odds with a whole-of-government edict. The Newman Government has axed 14,000 public service jobs since it came to power 10,600 of them with payouts, along with 3400 cuts to temporary contract workers and vacant positions…

via Frontline services hit as Newman Government axes jobs | The Australian.