Chief Minister Jon Stanhope has said he expects the structural review to recommend drastic cuts to the public service.
Mr Stanhope said it is most likely the 10 departments will be turned into five or six uber-departments, each one probably overseen by a single minister.
The dashing Ben Doherty says likely combinations are Urban Services and Planning and Land being merged; Emergency Services subsumed into Justice and Community Safety, even though an independent Emergency Services Authority was one of the McLeod recommendations; and Education and Training merged with the Community Services portfolios making a giant services department.
Any merging of departments inevitably comes with job cuts, particularly since the point of the exercise will be to bring the budget back closer to break even (or ideally to surplus).
Brendan Smyth has, of course, put his two cents in, telling the CT there should be cuts in the number of SES staff but saying in his release the cuts should be at senior levels.
He also says, somewhat inevitably, this is all Labor’s fault because they have doubled the number of government departments since coming into office.