Service NSW restructure and more mass sackings – good! Seriously shut down this mega-bureaucracy !

November 19, 2024

NSW Liberal Premier Barry O’Farrell’s legacy mega umbrella Service NSW from 2012 is up for yet another political restructure and more mass sackings of entrusting governmental staff.

But why? Why waste more outsourced consulting time, fees and hassles to rather instead just shut down the whole O’Farrell-inherited monster agency down?

O’Farrell was a failed premier. He launched failed schemes, like massive mega-departments – which has morphed into being the largest public service indulgence in Australia!

Apparently, insider leaked documents from a brave Service NSW employee show big changes at this, Australia’s largest employer. This pissed off and concerned whistleblowing public servant has exposed the true extent of mass job cuts within a mega government department that provides direct services to the public, from natural disaster recovery to licensing.

Hundreds of jobs within Service NSW are set to be axed as part of a broader trimming down of the NSW state’s public sector, which is Australia’s largest employer with a headcount of more than 453,000!

“The way this is being handled internally is appalling” the furious employee told the media.

Almost 5000 people currently work for Service NSW, a department responsible for everything from car registration and births, deaths and marriages to emergency assistance during bushfires, floods, drought, and of late, grant unconscionable clawback.

Given that the media salary of public servants with Service NSW reap $100,000 p.a. the annual cost of O’Farrell’s bureaucratic monster is a whopping $500,000,000+ every year. And that just the base salaries.

They’ve been kept in the dark about which roles are set to be cut, but leaked government documents give a worrying indication that divisions managing cyber security, digital services and even customer contact centres are in the firing line. A leaked ‘sensitive’ document shows the vast majority of job cuts in one division alone are permanent staff, not contractors as the government has claimed.

Service NSW is the first area of the public sector to be restructured, as part of Premier Chris Minns’ election commitment to find significant cost savings.

On Monday, a spokesperson for Customer Service Minister Jihad Dib insisted the job cuts would “predominantly impact contractors, temporary employees, and staff through natural attrition”.

Trust politicians?

Useless Jihad – Minn’s Minister for everything from Digital Government to Customers Serve-Us, to Emergency Services (aka Police, Ambos, Fire and Rescue) to Youth. Well down the pecking order, Youth have to get in the far queue after all this lot.

Whereas the following internal document marked ‘sensitive’ reveals the restructure plan for just one significant division – and the vast majority of the 188 redundancies affect permanent workers.

The Projects, Partnerships and Insights (PPI) division (whatever that means), which manages disaster recovery and disaster preparation programs, among others, will lose 166 permanent positions and 22 contract roles (Service NSW stay-at-home debt collectors).

Stewart Little, general secretary of the Public Service Association (PSA) slammed the government’s secrecy and accused Treasurer Daniel Mookhey of breaking a promise made just weeks ago that “there would be no job losses”. Mookhey has been accused of lying about protecting jobs when handing down the state budget last month.

NSW Treasurer Daniel Mookhey – more interested imagining himself as some president of…something

PSA’s Stewart Little:

“This is a huge cut in essential frontline support for the public. Our members in Service NSW are embedded in every community across the state. Every town has a Service NSW office. This will impact everyone.

After there’s a flood or bushfire, or when we’re in the midst of a pandemic, Service NSW is there, ensuring the public has access to the services they need. They are the front desk of the government.

If you’ve lost your house to bushfire for example, Service NSW is where you go to access emergency grants and get copies of your essential documents like a new driver’s license.
This is a slap in the face for people trying to recover from flood, bushfire and drought.”

The consequences of the job cuts in the PPI will be realised when NSW has “another flood or a bad bushfire season. Who will provide relief to affected communities? I mean, there are still people living in tents in Lismore following the floods [in February 2022].”

Service NSW whistleblower:

“This is why you don’t have to wait for a period of time on the phone, or any applications are done in a certain period of time, or outages are avoided or managed appropriately,” they said. Minister Dib is stating in the news that the changes will predominantly impact contractors, temporary employees, and staff through natural attrition. This is not true.”

A leaked ‘sensitive’ government document shows the long list of divisions within Service NSW that will see job cuts.

The document exposing the severity of cuts to permanent staff in the PPI business unit “is just an example” of what’s expected across the whole of Service NSW, the whistleblower said.

Another leaked document revealing the “sequencing and timelines for change” lists 17 other business units within Service NSW that will see redundancies.

Among them are customer contact centres, cyber security, digital services, business bureau services, workplace health and safety, and contract procurement.

“Customer service will be impacted” the whistleblower said.

If the severity of job cuts revealed in the PPI division are replicated elsewhere, the whistleblower fears “more than 50 per cent of staff” could be sacked.

There’s a growing sense of dread within Service NSW as staff grapple with uncertainty over which jobs will be impacted.

Paid morning tea break squabbling about the staff cappuccino machines

PSA’s Stewart Little:

“Job cuts will disproportionately affect regional communities. These workers are basically the front desk of the government and when you cut them you make it more difficult for the people of NSW to access welfare and support.

If job cuts are to be made they should be focused on senior executives and contractors before frontline workers who every day talk to the public so they can get access to crucial government services.”

Another leaked document reveals the timing of redundancies across Service NSW, with a period of consultation now underway and a detailed announcement of the restructure due in late November. That means hundreds of people will be turfed out just before Christmas.

There’s a growing sense of uncertainty and anger across the workforce over how the restructure has been communicated, it’s understood. Staff have been cautioned not to discuss the job cuts with their colleagues and instead provide “feedback” via formal channels.

Department of Customer Service PR:

“Service NSW acknowledges this is a stressful time for many of our staff and their families and is making every effort to ensure people are supported. This includes access to free and independent counselling as well as coaching and support to search and apply for other roles. All 117 of Service NSW’s physical customer-facing offices will remain operational, adding there are no plans to remove existing core services. There will be a focus on maintaining existing face-to-face customer services, while the Service NSW app is also being uplifted as part of the NSW Government’s investment in the Digital ID program.”

Service NSW official whistleblower:

“They’re essentially telling us not to [say anything] publicly, but under a veil of secrecy. The (Minns) government has approved $86 million to pay out redundancies, it’s understood. That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to the bill footed by taxpayers. In six months’ time when the work starts to pile up, they will start rehiring again. So, this taxpayer money is [being] managed in a negligent way.”

A leaked ‘sensitive’ document outlines the timing of the Service NSW restructure.

About 4950 staff are currently employed by Service NSW – almost double the number just before the COVID-19 pandemic in mid-2019. “This is not sustainable,” Mr Dib’s spokesperson said. “Given the size of the deficit left to us by the former government, it is essential that we continue to be responsible with taxpayer money.”

During the last state election, Labor campaigned on a platform of efficiencies, including slashing the number of senior executive roles across all departments by a total of 15 per cent. It also pledged to take a knife to costly recruitment agency contractor roles in the public service, reducing that headcount by a total of 25 per cent.

One has to be a desperate creature to work for government

The number of full-time roles across the entire NSW public sector in 2023 increased by 4.7 per cent compared to the previous year, with an additional 17,265 people hired in just 12 months.

The median salary paid is $95,984, plus 11.5% superannuation, plus fortnightly ADOs, plus 10 days sick leave cumulative annually, plus 4 weeks annual leave, plus 12 paid public holidays annually, plus long service leave, and one hour lunches week daily. So make that media over $100,000+ p.a.

Tell that to small business owners no lucky enough to qualify for the GST threshold of $76,000, but then they have to prepared and submitted quarterly BAS Statements to the Australian Tax Office as slave-labour tax collecting administrative punishment.

Government, public servants, public authority bureaucrats and politicians function in an insular aloof financial bubble of elite privilege – all paid for by the taxpayer, such as by small business owners.