Unions Tasmania has described the government’s handling of job cuts as “absolutely shambolic”, as a union-backed report calls for a parliamentary committee to oversee $1.5 billion in spending cuts.
The McKell Institute report, prepared with support from Unions Tasmania, also recommends the government consider a complete rethink of its approach to budget repair before the next budget.
It found funding for the Tasmanian Industrial Commission would be halved across the forward estimates, while WorkSafe Tasmania’s funding would be cut by about $650,000 in 2027-28.
The government announced last year that it planned to abolish the Industrial Commission and transfer its functions to the Tasmanian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Unions Tasmania secretary Jess Munday said unions had turned to the Industrial Commission in recent weeks when the government “failed to consult on workplace matters”.
“It’s hard to see for workers how this isn’t part of a broader attack on them,” she said.
“We have those real fears that this is part of a broader anti-worker agenda.”
Munday said the government appeared to be “hell-bent on smashing through our public services and the people that deliver them”.
She said the government was also “silent on whether or not it’s going to cut workers’ rights to workers’ compensation”.
The report found funding for specialist outpatient services was nearly 20% below what was spent in 2024-25.
It warned the outpatient waiting list could approach 90,000 by mid-2027 if funding remained frozen.
The report also found funding had been reduced at 10 of the state’s 17 regional hospitals, although overall regional hospital funding was essentially unchanged.
The report highlighted announced cuts affecting about 10% of workers at Building Tasmania and the Department of Premier and Cabinet, along with more than 50 teaching and other jobs at TasTAFE.
“I think budgets are about choices and I think the government is choosing to cut,” Munday said.
“I think they are completely wrong with any suggestions that cuts are the only way to go.”
Australian Education Union (AEU) Tasmanian president David Genford said departments were being told to cut a set number of jobs rather than identify genuine duplication.
“Workers said to us, our bosses don’t know which roles are being duplicated, they’re just going to guess and that’s what’s happening,” he said.
Genford said a proposal to cut four jobs from the Inclusive Practice Team, which supports students with disability, would not have been reconsidered if the AEU had not taken the matter to the Industrial Commission.
He said a revised proposal had been promised but was yet to be released.
Speaking in Launceston today, government minister Nick Duigan said he was not concerned by the McKell Institute’s warnings.
“There is a need for government to cut its spending and that’s not something new,” he said.
“That’s something we’ve been talking about, right-sizing the public service, for more than two years now.”
