Labor will axe 4,000 jobs

“Labor will cut 4,000 Centrelink staff if it wins Government at the next election,” said Community Services Minister Larry Anthony today.

“Kim Beazley should come clean about Labor’s plans for Centrelink, with a newspaper report from Labor’s recent conference showing the ALP would cut around 4,000 jobs from the public service provider,” said Mr Anthony.

“A national newspaper reported that ‘Labor’s promise would see up to 18,079 jobs retained across Australia’, but Centrelink currently has 22,197 staff.

“What happened to those 4,118 staff?

“It’s alright for Mr Beazley and his union mates to say they won’t privatise Centrelink but the devil will be in the detail and, as usual from Labor, the details will not be available until after the next election.

“It’s clear that the cat is out of the bag – Labor will cut Centrelink staff numbers in an attempt to pay for its GST rollback,” said Mr Anthony.