PUBLIC SECTOR —
FTE STAFF
768. Mrs L.M. HARVEY to the Minister for Public Sector
Management:
I refer to the budget papers that
were handed down last week.
(1) Can the minister confirm that the size of the
public sector under WA Labor has grown by more than 8 000 full-time
equivalents, or more than seven per cent?
(2) Can the
minister explain what the $300 million worth of taxpayer money was spent on
given that the voluntary targeted separation scheme was designed to reduce the
public sector by 3 000 FTEs and save $1.1 billion?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
(1)–(2) The
government has had a program since it has been in office to ensure that it
converts more contract employees, who are renewed each year, to permanent
employment. Over my time in Parliament, which now extends to greater than 20
years, I have met people from across agencies, particularly in health and
education, who have been on renewed one-year contracts for that entire period
without any security of employment. The government launched a plan, maybe a couple
of years ago, to ensure that more of those people who are contract employees,
and casual and part-time employees—sorry, fixed-term employees—are converted to permanent employment. We have had
some success in that. There is no real additional cost out of that because we are ordinarily employing someone
and renewing them on an annual basis as opposed to employing them
permanently and paying them the same amount of money. It basically means that
there is a reduction in insecure employment. That is a good policy. Insecure
employment in the community is a big issue and ensuring that people have the
confidence of knowing they have a permanent job and can therefore take out a mortgage, buy a car, invest their money, have a holiday
around Western Australia, and a career is important. No doubt that has
influenced the numbers of employees in the Western Australian public sector. In
addition, as time goes by, school enrolments increase. We have increased the
number of police officers, corrections officers, WorkSafe inspectors and the
like.
In closing—I meant to do this
at the outset of my comments—I would like to acknowledge that there has
been a terrible tragedy today at Curtin University. It sounds appalling and no
doubt emergency services are on the scene trying to deal with it. I pass on my
thoughts to all those involved, especially the people who are trapped, and to
the family members of those people and the man who has lost his life.