By Cam Lucadou-Wells
The latest round of job cuts at the Australian Tax Office’s Dandenong branch has sparked concerns over the “privatising” of the federal public service.
In the past five years, about 150 positions are thought to have been culled at the branch – equivalent to nearly a fifth of its workforce.
It comes on the back of the controversial closure of the Department of Immigration and Border Protection office in Thomas Street, Dandenong last year.
On 10 August, a Senates estimates committee response revealed up to 50 positions were made redundant in Dandenong, Box Hill and Parramatta ATO branches before the end of June.
The “client engagement” work was being transferred to Brisbane and Perth. A mix of “ongoing and non-ongoing” staff as well as labour hire workers would take up the roles, the response states.
At least 22 of the jobs have been cut from Dandenong, the branch’s union believes.
CPSU acting director Emma Groube said the staff did important tax-office work, such as compliance.
“This is a terrible decision to strip decent, permanent ATO jobs from Dandenong and replace them with lower paid, insecure labour hire in Perth and Brisbane.
‘This decision hurts these workers but also the entire Dandenong community.”
Ms Groube called on the Government to scrap the “illogical” ASL cap that forced the ATO to cut permanent jobs and replaced them with labour hire and outsourcing.
“It’s not good for these workers and it’s not good for our tax base.”
Bruce MP Julian Hill said the ALP pledged to reverse the privatisation of public services by the Government.
“I’m shocked but not surprised that Mr Turnbull has been caught cutting and privatising up to 50 jobs from the Dandenong tax office.
“When people call the tax office they expect to speak to an expert officer not a casual worker in a privatised call centre.”
An ATO spokesperson told Star News that none of the outgoing positions were “outsourced to private industry”.
The Dandenong office’s staff cuts over the past five years were in line with overall reductions across the ATO, he said.
“A number of positions in the Dandenong office were recently made redundant following a voluntary redundancy process in June this year.
“There will be no impact to ATO service standards as a result of these changes, with the overall capability of the positions moved into separate sites across the country.”
The Federal Treasurer’s office was contacted for comment.
