The Department of Defence has announced that up to 111 jobs will be cut from aerospace, intelligence and surveillance, and maritime and weapon divisions.
The union representing the public sector including Department of Defence, the CPSU, is calling on the government halt these staff cuts.
These cuts are a direct result of the government’s Average Staffing Level Cap policy. The Department’s own change document spells out that this is job cut is solely due to the ASL Cap. Since 2013, 4,667 jobs or 21% of department staff have been cut as a direct result of the ASL Cap.
The majority of roles will come from South Australia(60) and Victoria(44), with the remainder to come from New South Wales, and the ACT offices.
Brooke Muscat, CPSU Deputy National President said, “We know that now is not the time to be cutting jobs. The CPSU is calling on the government to halt this decision, and scrap the ASL Cap.”
“The government needs to be investing in public sector jobs, not cutting them. These cuts will impact the capacity of the aerospace, intelligence and surveillance, and maritime and weapon divisions of the department. The Department of Defence and Australia’s defence capabilities should not be paying the price for political decisions.”
“It’s time for the government to scrap the ASL Cap and invest in Australian public sector. If the past 6 months have shown us anything, it’s that the public sector is integral to Australia’s success and response to the pandemic.”
