ACTU said the announcement from Minister for Employment Eric Abetz that the Government plans to freeze jobs, is a blow for the public who access services and an unfortunate outcome for workers hoping to enter the public sector.
"This will lead to a thinning out of services that are regularly accessed by the public. We will see frustrating delays, queues and backlogs as the government strives to meet its election target of 12,000 job cuts at all costs," said ACTU President Ged Kearney.
"The Government must confirm its intentions and give assurances that there will not be further job losses."
"Australians who want to enter the public sector will no longer be able to apply for employment and that is a great shame. What this equates to is a shrinking jobs market and that is bad news for everyone."
Ms Kearney said unions were particularly concerned about regional areas where there were already only a limited number of public sector employees in town.
"Regional communities, in particular, must be protected from the freeze so that it doesn't force people to leave town to find other work and strip their communities of those local services.
"The focus should be on how the public sector can best deliver services and look after the public, not about how small the Government can make itself. We need a robust public sector that is big enough to handle the significant demands upon its services."
Media contact: Eleni Hale 0418 793 885 or Ben Ruse 0409 510 879 or ehale@actu.org.au