Coast jobs at risk says ACTU

Up to 200 jobs could be lost on the Central Coast under a Coalition plan to cut $6B from the public sector, says the Australian Council of Trade Unions (ACTU).

ACTU Secretary Sally McManus said 36,000 jobs were at risk nationwide if the Coalition went ahead with its threat to cut public sector jobs.

Coalition Leader Peter Dutton has said he would look for savings of $6B from the public sector to match the Government’s policy to boost investment in Medicare if elected.

McManus said the Central Coast had large numbers of local public services that would lose critical staff, including at Services Australia, the Australian Electoral Commission, the Australian Tax Office and the National Disability Insurance Agency.

The level of job cuts needed to strip $6B from the public sector would see around one in five jobs lost nationwide, she said.

McManus said the scale of the job losses would negatively impact small businesses in the region, which would be forced to adjust to higher levels of local unemployment and customers with less money to spend.

Central Coast locals would also be left behind with critical services becoming difficult to access and wait times and backlogs blowing out.

“Gosford is a key regional service area supporting people living on the Central Coast,” she said.

“The services run from here support the more than 48,000 pensioners and 1,400 veterans that live on the Central Coast, as well as thousands of students, carers and families.

“Gosford is also home to a large Australian Tax Office site where work to ensure big businesses are paying their fair share of tax is done, and an NDIA office, which supports people accessing the NDIS.

“When people need to apply for a pension, process a health claim, or get jobseeker payments, they rely on having enough skilled public sector staff to get access to support and payments without long delays or backlogs.

“Public sector workers in Gosford have a high level of expertise in servicing their local community and in protecting people with disability and their families accessing the NDIS.

“Stripping out hundreds of Gosford public sector jobs will set off a series of significant challenges, in the form of higher unemployment undermining families, the community and the viability of local businesses.”

Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) National Secretary, Melissa Donnelly, said Central Coast residents deserved to have access to reliable public services when they needed them.

“Cutting public sector jobs will lead to Gosford residents facing delays in payments for pensioners and families, long call wait times, and backlogs that leave veterans without critical support,” she said.

“Public sector workers also provide essential services – timely weather warnings, disaster alerts, and frontline assistance that keep people safe.

“With 60% of public service jobs based in communities like Gosford, Goulburn, and the Blue Mountains, these cuts will hit regional communities hard – taking away jobs, damaging local economies, and stripping essential services from the people who rely on them.”