171 top NSW bureaucrats face axe
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'Disappointed in the quality of advice': Premier Nathan Rees (AAP: Tracey Nearmy, file photo)
The ranks of top bureaucrats are set to be slashed by 20 per cent in next month's New South Wales mini-Budget.
Premier Nathan Rees has told a Budget Estimates hearing that State Government departments have been asked to cut the number of their senior executives by a fifth.
Mr Rees says that equals around 171 positions and will result in a saving of $34 million a year.
"This is about reducing staffing costs across the board," he said.
"I want to make sure that senior executives are bearing their fair share and making a real contribution to the fiscal credibility that underpins the mini-Budget."
He says he has been disappointed in the quality of advice he has received when departments were asked for their mini-Budget suggestions.
"Some of the measures that have come forward are things like developing sporting fields as a revenue-raising option, curtailing pensioner travel discounts and in one case, winding back on a scheme that subsidised spectacles for disabled kids," he said.
NSW Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell says he is sceptical the Premier will deliver on the commitment.
"If this is the first example of the State Government recognising its mistake in increasing back office numbers over the past 13 years, that would be good," he said.
"My point is that this is a State Government that has time and time again committed itself to do things, including reducing back officers, and time and time again failed to deliver."
Mr Rees's office has also confirmed two spin doctors made redundant on his first day in the job received a combined $50,000 payout.
The Government needs to make up revenue shortfalls of $90 million a month.
