Victorian Treasurer Jaclyn Symes has declared the state’s sprawling public sector bureaucracy a “handbrake on productivity” as she announced a $4 billion savings plan that would abolish or merge dozens of public entities.
The Allan government will also strip 332 executive and senior technical jobs out of the Victorian Public Service and 1000 jobs in total, about half the number recommended by the state’s former top bureaucrat Helen Silver in a review released on Thursday.
The review was labelled by the Coalition as an admission of guilt about Labor’s financial management, while unions and advocacy groups railed against proposals to reduce jobs or remove existing bodies.
Treasurer Jaclyn Symes announced the government’s response to the Silver review on Thursday morning. Credit: Wayne Taylor
The Independent Review of the Victorian Public Service, which was commissioned by 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.
“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,” it stated.
“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 more than 500 public entities and an extraordinary 3200 public boards and committees – a number greater than any other state or territory – undermined efforts to reduce public spending.
In response, the g
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