The ABC reports the happy news that, for Canberra, the biggest item in the 2009 Commonwealth Budget is an end to the annual 2% belt tightening across the public service known as the “2% efficiency dividend”.
There will still be a 1.25% funding squeeze, down from 3.25%.
The CPSU is pleased:
- “It’s a welcome surprise, we’ve been campaigning hard in the community over the last nine months to have that special efficiency dividend knocked off,” he said.
“That’s a good start but there’s more work to be done to ensure that this blunt instrument which is a tax on jobs and a tax on services is removed from the Budget in future years.”
Apparently 1,700 public service jobs are getting the chop, to be balanced by 3,200 new jobs also in the public service.