Tasmania's treasurer reveals 668 full-time jobs axed, $21m in exit packages

Tasmania's public sector has shrunk by 668 full-time jobs, figures from the Treasurer reveal, making the state's public sector now the smallest it has been in at least five years.

Peter Gutwein also confirmed the State Government had spent about $21 million on redundancy and exit packages for departing workers.

The Treasurer provided a comprehensive update of his public service cuts, revealing 207 jobs had gone from the Department of Health and Human Services, 118 from State Growth and about 230 from Education.

The Government had set a target of shedding 821 full-time equivalent positions this financial year as part of budget savings.

The update comes at the end of a week during which ministers have said they would not "run a commentary" on job cuts.

Mr Gutwein said the deepest cuts had now been achieved and pointed out the broader state economy appeared to be performing well.

"While we have reduced the public sector by 668 FTEs, we have a strong growing economy," the Treasurer said.

"The economic forecast all been revised up."

The Community and Public Sector Union's Tom Lynch queried the timing of the new information.

He said Mr Gutwein tried to head off the release of data that he had sought under Right to Information laws.

"The information released by the Treasurer today was only released because it would have to have been released by a Right to Information request," Mr Lynch said.

"He did it at the last moment, he has had this information on a monthly bases since September last year."

Mr Gutwein did not answer directly when asked if this was the case.

"What this is about is ensuring that we are transparent, and that Tasmanians understand where the Government is at," he said.

$*21m spent on redundancies, exit packages*

Mr Gutwein's information pack shows the state has spent $10.4 million on voluntary redundancy packages and $10.7 million on its Workplace Renewal Incentive Program (WRIP).

The average redundancy payout in the Justice Department was $70,400, $58,200 in the Health Department, and $56,000 in State Growth.

All told, the public service shrank from 25,520 full-time workers in June 2011 to 22,569 in January 2015.

Just after the 2014 state election, there were 24,602 public servants in Tasmania.

The data also shows that, compared to June 2014, Tasmania has lost about 180 teachers, 38 nurses, 37 allied health workers, and 117 hospital workers.

*Frontline jobs regrettable*

Mr Gutwein conceded his job reductions had involved cuts to frontline services.

"We had to make decisions that we didn't want to make," he said, referring to the Government's decision to withdraw its plan to freeze public sector pay in the face of Upper House resistance.

"It's regrettable that we've had to go down this particular path, but we were left with no other option.

"We have done our very best to protect the frontline, but it's regrettable that we haven't been able to protect every front line position."

Mr Gutwein also repeatedly dodged questions on whether the average state school class size in Tasmania had risen as a direct result of the decision to cut 180 teachers over the past five months.

"Can I say that the target that we set ourselves was ensuring that we remain below the target ratio figure of 25 per class, and my advice is we remain below that," the Treasurer said.

*Public service size now 'quite adequate'*

The CPSU's Tom Lynch claimed the cuts had left the public sector unable to deliver basic services.

"People now expect more from their public sector, they expect higher standards, greater safety, greater protection of our quarantine borders," he said.

"Tasmanians are beginning to see services they rely upon disappearing."

Mr Gutwein denied the claim and confirmed the Government remained committed to cutting a further 532 full-time roles by 2017-18.

"Certainly at this stage we think that the public service, as it stands at the moment, is quite adequate and will be quite adequate once we've finished this program," he said.

Mr Gutwein said the "heavy lifting" had now been completed, and indicated the voluntary redundancy and WRIP rounds could soon be wound back.

"Over the forward estimates obviously we had a total of 1,200 reduction of FTEs, I'm of a view that that can probably be managed by natural attrition."

Mr Gutwein will hand down his second state budget in May.