Feds put on notice over effects of public service losses in city O’Toole hits job cuts

PUBLIC servant job cuts are hurting families in Townsville both through unemployment and a reduction in services delivered, according to the region’s Federal Parliament representative.

Herbert MP Cathy O’Toole moved a motion regarding employment in regional communities last week, attack- ing the Malcolm Turnbull- led Australian Government for “severe” jobs cuts to the public service jobs in places like Townsville.

In the motion she noted the decision to relocate the Royal Australian Air Force’s 38 Squadron King Air fleet from Townsville to East Sale in Victoria, resulting in the loss of more than 40 aviation jobs in Townsville.

She said the Government’s change of process in 2nd Cavalry resulted in the loss of up to 10 Townsville Australian Public Service defence support staff and said Townsville had 50 fewer defence staff in June 2017 than it had in December 2012.

Ms O’Toole said 19 jobs had been cut from CSIRO in Townsville during the last few years.

She said Regional Queensland Customs staffing levels had been cut by 50 per cent with 30 job losses from Gladstone to Thursday Island, with Townsville being one of the hardest hit.

She added the consolidation of the Australian Taxation Office in 2014 result- ed in the loss Townsville.

Ms O’Toole called on the Government to ensure the coming federal budget put a moratorium on the regional jobs cuts in public sector agencies.

She told The Bulletin the job cuts had a significant impact to Townsville in terms of family incomes and services delivered.

“For instance, in human services when people are ringing up and reporting to Centrelink, waiting times for calls have been as long as five hours. of 110 jobs in

“We had tens of thousands of unanswered calls last year.”

She said the motion was an attempt to draw attention to the issue and said the Government should stop cutting “good quality public service jobs”. She said the jobs had a flow- on effect on the local economy, including in retail and hospitality spending.

Victoria MP Sarah Henderson defended the Government and said there had been 16 consecutive months of jobs growth, the “longest run of jobs growth ever recorded in this nation”.