Tasmania's Hiring Freeze Sparks Outrage: Are Frontline Jobs Really Safe?

Tasmanian Labor has accused Premier Jeremy Rockliff of breaking his promise to exclude nurses and frontline services from job cuts — a claim the government denies.

In March, the state government announced a hiring freeze for non-essential public service positions in an effort to reel in the state's finances.

But Labor said a recently released list of recruitment roles from the Health and Education departments painted a different picture.

The list, provided by Treasurer Guy Barnett in response to a question Shadow Treasurer Josh Willie asked in parliament on May 7, shows job requests that have been rejected under the state government's vacancy-control and hiring-freeze policies.

It outlines recruitment requests not approved since March 3 this year.

"This is an important transparency measure. We have a government that has been less than transparent when it comes to managing the budget," Mr Willie told parliament on May 7.

For the Department of Education, Children and Young People, there have been 18 requests not approved, including for roles such as librarians, project officers, senior communications officers and a human resources manager.

In the Health Department, 16 roles have not been filled. They include nursing staff, a clinical coordinator, communications advisers, and administration roles.

Dean Winter says the government has "broken its promise" not to cut frontline workers.

There have also been several roles not filled in the Justice, Police, Fire and Emergency Services, State Growth and Natural Resources and Environment departments.

Labor leader Dean Winter said the state government needed to explain how roles such as nurses were not essential.

"When the government announced this policy, they said there'd be no frontline roles impacted, and yet today we now have a list which shows that positions like nurses, like librarians, have been directly impacted," Mr Winter said.

"Having positions like nurses affected by a freeze puts more pressure on other staff. And, speaking with nurses directly, particularly through the ANMF [Australian Nursing and Midwifery Federation], I know these are cuts they can't afford.

"So either the government, Jeremy Rockliff, has broken his promise, in terms of frontline resources, or they don't believe that nurses are frontline workers … [but] of course they are. They've broken their promise."

Hiring freeze 'ensuring only essential positions are filled'

A government spokesperson said the hiring freeze was working as promised.

"No position essential to deliver frontline services is being cut. Not one. None," the spokesperson said.

"Any claims by Labor to the contrary are categorically false.

"The hiring freeze is doing exactly what it is designed to do: ensuring only essential positions are filled."

The spokesperson said department secretaries were determining which roles were essential, and it was only essential positions that were filled.

"Tasmania's state service has grown at a much faster rate than our population," they said.

"We are ensuring we have an effective and efficient state service that is affordable, sustainable, and delivers the services Tasmanians need."

Government stance criticised

Unions Tasmania secretary Jessica Munday said her organisation did not agree with dividing the public service into "essential" and "non-essential workers" — something she said the government was "absolutely trying to do".

Jessica Munday has criticised the government for talking about "essential" and "non-essential" public sector roles.

"They are attempting to paint a picture that people who work in roles that maybe the public don't see are somehow not necessary," she said.

"That is not true. Our health workers, our teachers, they can't do their jobs without support staff, without administrative staff.

"A hospital cannot function without orderlies and cleaners and catering staff.

"We never believed Jeremy Rockliff when he said positions like nurses and teaches wouldn't be affected, we knew they would be," she said.