The state budget delivers further investment in public sector jobs with new child protection practitioners, judges, magistrates but more importantly more court staff, more skilled public land firefighters and high-tech gear, with additional beds across five new youth care units as part of a major investment in mental health services. BP3 has all service delivery initiatives by dept.

BP3 also has the savings spelt out by dept which equate to $1.8B over the forward estimates but will concentrate on eliminating the wasteful practice of using contractors and consultants which is applauded.  Another $1.9B in savings is set out on P142 which is the unnecessary and unwelcome reduction in the Government's wages cap but this doesn't impact until after March 2024 for CPSU Agreements.

I’m pleased we’ve also obtained commitments for additional support dollars so any public service worker transitioning to take up new opportunities in new programs has access to training to re-skill & secure their employment.

Our Agreements have mobility (transition) defined and enforcable in our VPS EBA's which sets out how employee transition is to work which ensures employment is protected for those caught between programs (re-prioritisation) and we have now secured commitments to more funding for JSE re-skilling for this workforce to build our in house capability and ensure jobs are secure.

I will continue to meet with PS Employers to ensure the commitments given about protecting our jobs with JSE investment to help build in-house capabilities while wasteful practices like the use of contractors and consultants are ended.