Prime Minister Scott Morrison. Photo: AAP
Camera IconPrime Minister Scott Morrison. Photo: AAP Credit: Supplied/JOEL CARRETT

Shake-up threatens service delivery, jobs

AAPWestern Suburbs Weekly

SCOTT Morrison’s overhaul of the public service could lead to job losses, wasted spending on re-branding and poorer services, critics say.

However, the government insists the cut to the number of federal departments from 18 to 14 will improve services and efficiency.

Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet secretary Philip Gaetjens told a forum in Canberra there would be some “consolidation of back office functions” because of the changes, which will create four new mega-departments from February 2020.

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“(This will enable) the APS to maximise its focus on policy, programs and service delivery, not internal administration,” he told the Institute of Public Administration.

Public sector union national secretary Melissa Donnelly said job cuts over the past six years had already undermined services.

“This change will not do anything to address the 48 million unanswered calls to DHS in 2017/2018 or the further 5.3 million calls abandoned out of frustration.

“This won’t change the delays in the Family Court, and it won’t change the challenges our CSIRO face.”

Former head of the defence and agriculture departments, Paul Barratt, told AAP the key problems would be a “loss of domain knowledge”, disruption of chains of command and communication and “emergency crunching together of IT systems”.

In some cases this could mean information going missing when sought by members of the public.

There will also be a cost to taxpayers in terms of department rebranding and printing.

Labor Leader Anthony Albanese. AAP
Camera IconLabor Leader Anthony Albanese. AAP Credit: Supplied/AAP

Labor leader Anthony Albanese was scathing of the shakeup.

“I’m concerned that public servants will have a pretty rotten Christmas not knowing what their future is,” Mr Albanese told reporters in Sydney on Friday.

He said two of the changes – bringing environment into the agriculture department and communications into the infrastructure department – were of questionable value.

“Agriculture and the environment are competing for water,” he said.

“And in what world is communications in 2019 something that is just an add-on? Communications is what is driving our economy.”

Former Treasury boss Ken Henry saw nothing wrong with bringing the departments of environment and agriculture together.

“I think one of the big challenges confronting Australia is how we use our agricultural land in a way which is more environmentally sustainable,” Dr Henry told ABC radio.

Finance Minister, Mathias Cormann. Mark Nolan/Getty Images
Camera IconFinance Minister, Mathias Cormann. Mark Nolan/Getty Images Credit: Supplied/Getty Images

Finance Minister Mathias Cormann said the changes were aimed at getting “better collaboration across key policy areas”, as well as ensuring government administration was effective and efficient.

“In the end, the decisions in relation to staffing positions are matters for individual secretaries,” Senator Cormann said.

“But the purpose of this exercise – it’s not a savings exercise, it’s not a cost-cutting exercise – it’s principally an exercise of making sure that the federal government’s administration is as responsive to community needs as possible.”

The Media Entertainment and Arts Alliance said it feared further cuts to the arts, which has been swallowed up by a mega department of Infrastructure, Transport, Regional Development and Communications.

“The absence of the word ‘Arts’ from the new department’s title says it all,” MEAA chief Paul Murphy said.

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