Tassie’s public sector workforce slashed

And the local Australian Electoral Commission office lost 47 per cent of its employees, the defence workforce fell by 24 per cent, and social services staff decreased by 52 per cent.

At the same time the department of Foreign Affairs and Trade grew 171 per cent from seven employees to 19 and the Office of the Fair Work Ombudsman also saw an increase of 108 per cent, from 13 to 27.

Labor’s disability and carers spokeswoman Carol Brown said the state could not afford to lose 500 well-paying jobs, saying the job exodus painted a “grim picture” for Tasmania.

She hit out at Tasmania’s Liberal and National senators for failing to deliver on vows to bring in more public service jobs to the state.

“It tells us they’re not fair dinkum around bringing jobs to Tasmania,” Senator Brown said.

But Tasmanian-based Assistant Minister for Agriculture and Water Resources Richard Colbeck said Tasmania’s fall was in line with national figures.

“Tasmania still has the highest proportion of Commonwealth public service jobs of any state, but the most important thing is better economic management has led to the creation of more than a million new jobs, including more than 15,000 in Tasmania,” he said.

In April this year Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam joined with State Government Treasurer Peter Gutwein to launch a campaign aimed at bringing a “fair share” of Aus- tralian public service jobs to Tasmania. A month later he failed to secure any in the Federal Budget.

Senator Brown said she was concerned 100 more Tasmanian jobs could also be lost if the Morrison Government privatised visa processing.

Concerns have also been raised about job losses at the state’s weather bureau after plans were revealed to move forecasters interstate, while there were also fears 30 Tasmanian CSIRO scientists could lose their positions.