The Canberra Times is running an article today claiming that the taxpayer bill for federal public sector redundancies has passed $1 billion:
The redundancy bill for departing public servants and other government workers will be more than $1.1 billion in just three years, the latest government data shows.
But the real cost of Commonwealth golden handshakes under Labor and Liberal governments since 2012 might be much higher, with the Treasury unable to shake its habit of vastly underestimating the cost of taxpayer-funded redundancy payouts…
Monday’s Mid-Year Economic Forecast and Outlook projects $280 million will be paid in redundancies and separations to workers in the federal public sector, a blowout of nearly 170 per cent from the $105 million predicted in the May budget…
“There is no blowout,” Senator Cormann said. “Arrangements to fund redundancies are in line with expectations.
Let’s hope that the current attempt at downsizing the public service does not end up following what happened when the Howard Government was first elected in 1996 and began cutting spending and jobs across public sector agencies.
Back then, those public servants with the most experience (and the largest “packages” on offer) took voluntary redundancies, only to then be re-hired as consultants and contractors, and were effectively paid more to do the same job.
