Liberal Candidate for the Legislative Council Division of Launceston Sam McQuestin said today that relocating public servants to Launceston could deliver savings to the State Budget.
“Rather than focussing on axing front-line workers like police, teachers and nurses the Labor-Green Government should be more creative in generating budget savings,” Sam McQuestin said.
“Rents in suburban Launceston would be substantially cheaper that inner-city Hobart and long term budget savings could be delivered by strategically relocating a range of public servants to the Launceston area.
“There have already been some examples of public sector employees being relocated away from the Hobart CBD to outer suburbs for cost reasons – so why not consider relocation to Launceston?
“Surely there would also be benefits in have more public servants living closer to the communities that they are there to serve?
“Apart from substantial rental savings from relocating public servants, there could also be travel savings and efficiency dividends by having the public servants more in touch with the people they are delivering services to.
“Relocating public servants out of capital cities is not a new concept and has been utilised successfully in other jurisdictions delivering savings as well as other benefits.
“I am calling on the Labor-Green government to ensure that the Budget Razor Gang undertakes some analysis on the potential savings that could be made from relocating public servants out of Hobart so that this option is fully investigated as part of the Budget process.”
