Member for Maitland, Jenny Aitchison MP has labelled the Berejiklian Government’s commitment to move forward with last year’s commitment to send more than 330 public service positions to Gosford, as devastating for Maitland.
In April last year the Government announced plans to move 330 positions to Gosford to energise the local economy, extend and revitalise the CBD, and increase opportunities to live and work on the Central Coast. While it will create jobs in Gosford, it means a loss of up to 50 public service jobs in Maitland in the future.
Approximately 270 roles will move to Gosford, however 50 extra positions won’t be created, they will be snatched from Lithgow and Maitland. Existing staff from Maitland will not be required to re-locate to Gosford but as roles from the Maitland Collection Centre become vacant over the next 20 months, those roles will be filled in Gosford.
In the context of 11 recent job losses from the Crown Lands Department, this latest cut to Maitland’s public sector, would see a total of up to 61 public sector jobs moved out of Maitland.
“Moving these jobs out of Maitland defies the government’s stated decentralisation policy, which is supposed to move public service jobs from Sydney to regional areas.”
“The Hunter region already has high unemployment figures.”
“Pinching jobs from Maitland to the Central Coast does nothing for overall employment in regional areas.”
“It’s devastating that a city like Maitland, already hit hard by the mining downturn in recent years, will be slugged with up to 50 job losses.”
“As Shadow Minister for Small Business, the Berejiklian Barilaro Government moving significant public sector jobs in and out of regions like ours is unfair for small business owners who plan their employment strategies around a particular market. This will see an increase in unemployment not just from the perspective of the job losses announced, but also from the flow on jobs that will be lost to our local economy. “
“Once again the Berejiklian Barilaro Government has let down Maitland and Lithgow on regional jobs.”
