John Cahill: People power makes our state move forward

The NSW Government must commit to growing the public sector at next month’s budget if it is to keep up with the demand for essential services.

This is one of the key findings revealed in Keeping Pace: The Impact of Population Growth on NSW Public Services, a report launched at the PSA’s annual conference in Sydney today.

According to the independent report, the NSW Government will need to employ on average 4,700 extra public service workers each year over the next 20 years if it is to keep up with the demand for essential services.

Population and Public Sector Growth: The state of NSW

The report also found that NSW is well below the OECD average for public sector employment, representing only 16 per cent of the total workforce in NSW – compared to an average 18 per cent across the OECD. And it risks falling further behind.

This research shows that the next state budget must include provisions for more people to deliver the services our communities will increasingly depend on.

NSW employs fewer people in public services than other similar economies, and although the NSW population has grown by 1.7 million people since 1985, the public sector has been contracting rather than keeping pace.

With the NSW population expected to grow by an extra 1.6 million people over the next 20 years, there will be an ever-increasing demand for access to essential services such as health, transport, education and police. And even if we cap our public sector workforce at the current ratio, below OECD standards, we will still need an extra 95,000 workers to keep up with demand. That is a conservative estimate, as it does not factor in the demands on the health and aged care sectors that will flow from the state’s steadily ageing population.

As well as the economic infrastructure our state needs to be able to cope with a growing population, we must start investing in services, and the people who will deliver those services.

Public servants in NSW have endured 20 years of cost-cutting and job-shedding: it’s time that stopped.

The basic purpose of government is to provide the essential public services that underpin our communities. If you cut back on public servants you are also cutting back on public services.