Parliamentary Questions

PUBLIC SERVANTS — VOLUNTARY SEPARATION SCHEME

347. Hon Dr STEVE THOMAS to the Leader of the House representing the Premier:

(1) What have been the audited and identifiable savings to the state of Western Australia for each financial year from 2017–18 to 2020–21 inclusive, delivered by the McGowan government's targeted voluntary separation scheme implemented on 1 July 2017?

(2) What have the associated financial costs of implementing the scheme been for each of those financial years?

(3) How many WA state public servants, full-time, part-time and casual, were employed by the state on 1 July 2017–18, 2018–19, 2019–20 and 2020–21?

(4) What was the wages bill for WA public servants for each of the financial years from 2017–18 to 2020–21 inclusive?

Hon SUE ELLERY replied:

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.

(1)–(2) This has been explained to the honourable member on multiple previous occasions. After allowing for separation costs and savings retained by agencies, the net savings from the commencement of the voluntary targeted separation scheme from mid-2017 to 30 June 2020 are estimated to total $60 million. This is because the separation costs are front-loaded. The scheme is on track to achieve net savings of $524 million by 2022–23 as savings occur after separations have been paid.

(3) The Public Sector Commission collects and reports workforce data from public sector agencies. This information is published quarterly, with the annual average tabled in Parliament each year in the State of the WA government sector workforce report. For the convenience of the honourable member, I seek leave to have the information incorporated into Hansard. This part of the answer is in tabular form.

Over the past five years, from 2016 to 2021, more than 90 per cent of the net increase in public sector headcount has been driven by growth in three service delivery areas. WA Health is 49.9 per cent of the total increase; the Department of Education, 34.1 per cent of the total increase; and the Department of Justice, 9.6 per cent of the increase.

(4) This information is published each year in the Annual report on state finances that is tabled in Parliament. For the convenience of the honourable member, I seek leave to have the below information, which is again in tabular form, incorporated into Hansard.