Labor is demanding the government reveal which departments have been told to leave vacant jobs unfilled.
Labor’s Ella Haddad said justice secretary wrote to staff late last month advising of “revised vacancy management” measures.
Haddad said staff were told vacancies would go unfilled and that advertised positions would be pulled back.
She said they were also told some work would have to be delayed or stopped altogether because there would be fewer people to do it.
The Department of Justice is responsible for the court system, family violence victim support, Victims of Crime services, community lawyers and funds Legal Aid.
“These are the kind of things that are likely to come under pressure because of the cuts Eric Abetz is demanding in the budget,” Haddad said.
She described the memo as an “honest” account from a department head, saying her concern is what other agencies are being told.
“What we’re wondering now is how many other secretaries of departments are being honest with their workforce and explaining what will happen, what will change, what jobs won’t be filled, what services will be cut,” she said.
Haddad said Labor has been contacted by people working in and dealing with departments across government.
Haddad also said it was a waste of money for the department to have advertised and interviewed for positions that will now go unfilled.
Abetz’s May budget requires the Department of Justice to find just under $68 million in savings over four years, as part of $1.47 billion across all agencies.
The budget papers forecast slight declines in funding for Supreme and Magistrates Court services and for legal assistance over the same period.
The budget also targets the loss of 1,700 public sector jobs over the same period through natural attrition, negotiated voluntary redundancies and workforce renewal.
Asked directly whether the measures would apply to other agencies, government minister Bridget Archer did not answer.
“We’re continuing to work through these issues in relation to that. We’ve been very transparent about this,” Archer said.
“What we continue to see from Labor is a whole lot of negativity but no solutions.”
Archer said the government is taking a measured and sensible approach to budget management and to vacancy control.
She rejected Labor’s characterisation of the cuts as extreme.
“I think that there is a high degree of fearmongering here,” Archer said.
“There are sensible efficiencies that can be made and we must make them because it is important that we have a sustainable budget now and into the future.”
Government minister Nick Duigan, asked the same question at a separate event, said the government has been upfront about its intentions.
“We’re on the record I think for the last two years talking about right-sizing our public service. That’s nothing new, it’s not surprising,” Duigan said.
“We want to take out some of that backroom bureaucracy so people can have the service levels that they’ve come to expect.”
