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Victoria’s bloated public sector has avoided the deepest cuts recommended by Helen Silver’s review, with just 29 of 500 public entities and boards to be axed.
The Allan government will strip 332 executive and senior technical jobs out of the Victorian Public Service and 1000 jobs in total across the public sector, about half the number recommended by the state’s former top bureaucrat.
The government claims these measures, combined with reducing its use of consultants and office space freed up by public servants working from home, will save the budget more than $4 billion over the next four years.
Among the most significant changes, Victoria’s independent health promotions agency VicHealth will cease to exist as a standalone entity and be absorbed into the Department of Health.
Infrastructure Victoria will be “refocused” with a reduced budget after the government did not accept the review’s recommendation to abolish it.
Sustainability Victoria, Cladding Safety Victoria, the Trade and Investment Board, the Latrobe Health Assembly, the Victorian Public Sector Commission Advisory Board, the Victorian Marine and Coastal Council and the Road Safety Camera Commissioner and Reference Group will all be wound up.
Victorian Treasurer Jaclyn Symes announced the findings of the Silver review on Friday.Credit: Joe Armao
Some existing entities will be merged, with Recycling Victoria folding into the Environment Protection Authority and multiple registration boards consolidated into a new Business and Processions Regulator.
The government rejected a recommendation to cease the rollout of government-funded Early Learning and Childcare Centres and shift them into the hands of private providers, a reform which would have booked savings of more than $350 million.
It also baulked at a recommended, wholesale restructure of the state’s public utilities, which would have resulted in 14 water boards merging into three.
The Independent Review of the Victorian Public Service, which was commissioned by Treasurer Jaclyn Symes in February shortly after she moved into the job, urged the government to take “immediate action” to reduce the sprawling growth of public sector entities since the pandemic.
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“There are good reasons for establishing entities to achieve a policy goal at a particular point in time, and they employ many talented and dedicated staff,” the Silver review found.
“However, the large and growing number of public entities and their complexity are creating duplication and confusion, and stifling public and private sector productivity.”
The report found that the substantial direct and indirect cost to the government of maintaining these entities and an extraordinary 3200 public boards and committees – a number greater than any other state or territory – undermined efforts to reduce public spending.
Symes said the measures adopted by the government would make the public sector more efficient while avoiding frontline job cuts.
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“Frontline workers are excluded from the scope of this review,” she said.
“Bringing together entities with similar functions makes it quicker and easier for individuals and businesses to interact with government by offering cleaner points of contact and fewer processes and forms to deal with.”
The full recommendations of the Silver review, which were presented to the government in July, would have netted budget savings of about $5 billion.
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