Greens deputy leader Jo Clay has confirmed there were genuine discussions with the Canberra Liberals about cutting additional executive-level positions within the ACT public service. According to Ms Clay, these talks explored redirecting staff away from what she described as "big business units that aren't doing very much" toward frontline services.
Negotiations on Budget Savings and Executive Management
Ms Clay informed Greens members last week that identifying areas for budget cuts was "really, really tricky." However, she highlighted the growth in executive management within the ACT's public service under the Labor government as a potential area for savings.
"So there was genuine conversation that, actually, probably what you might be doing is going through some of your executive level jobs and big business units that aren't doing very much and you might be redirecting some of those positions into frontline services," Ms Clay told the meeting, according to sources familiar with the discussion.
Talks Halted Before Agreement Reached
The Greens deputy leader clarified that negotiations with the Liberals ceased before the parties could agree on specific savings measures. "In actual fact, we can't actually tell you where we'd get the money from because negotiations have stopped and we didn't get that for - it was definitely a fairly significant problem that we would have had to discuss and resolve before you could go into any arrangement," she explained.
Ms Clay emphasized that the Greens have no intention of reducing the overall headcount of the ACT public service. "This is the position the Greens hold on the crossbench, and it is a red line we set down in policy discussions with the Canberra Liberals," she stated.
Concerns Over Public Sector Decisions
Ms Clay pointed to what she called "a series of pretty questionable decisions" at the highest levels of the territory's public sector. She cited the example of former Labor minister Gordon Ramsay being appointed to lead the ACT government's Cultural Facilities Corporation, followed by the creation of a new senior role for his former political staffer.
"Many of us are now looking at that series of events and wondering - are these decisions getting good outcomes for the community?" Ms Clay questioned.
Labor's Response and Union Concerns
A Labor spokesman rejected the claim that the government had introduced a new layer of executive management. "Recent machinery of government changes have brought together complementary areas to improve efficiency and have reduced the number of directors-general and deputies," the spokesman said.
The Community and Public Sector Union's ACT regional secretary, Maddy Northam, expressed deep concern about any discussion of job cuts. "It's alarming that politicians from any party think it's acceptable to casually float redundancies. These are real people in our community with real families, not numbers on a spreadsheet," Ms Northam said.
Broader Political Context
The revelations come after Greens members received a briefing on talks held over the summer between their party and the Canberra Liberals. These discussions had explored the possibility of removing ACT Labor from office and forming a power-sharing coalition.
Greens leader Shane Rattenbury apologized to members for the way the talks were handled without broader party involvement. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Andrew Barr announced public service changes in December 2024 that included redirecting resources to frontline services, stating "There'll be fewer executives and there'll be more people delivering services."
Mr Rattenbury emphasized the need for fiscal repair without austerity, looking for areas "where you can make savings and efficiencies and some of those are about priorities." He defended the Greens' record in cabinet until 2024, noting that "The deficit was nothing like it is now when we were in the cabinet."
