Christian Kerr writes:

New NSW Premier said last week frontline public
servants, such as teachers, nurses and the police, will be quarantined from
staffing cuts as his state’s budgetary situation came under closer examination https://www.smh.com.au/news/national/iemma-vows-to-protect-public-servants-jobs/2005/08/04/1123125856810.html
– but as last May’s $300 million surplus evaporates, his new Finance Minister
Michael Costa’s line that it would make no difference if 20 per cent of public
servants were sacked keeps getting repeated.

Which makes it a good time to look at the
Crikey Index of Over-Government that we wheeled out earlier this year.

In March we wrote: “The really big news
from this table is that NSW is incredibly over-governed based on the ratio. It
has a population almost 40 per cent or two million more than Victoria but a
much higher proportion of public servants to population.”

That was then – but this is now:

FULL PUBLIC SERVICE

 Pub Servant

 Pop’n

 Mar-05

 Change

 STATE PUBLIC SERVICE ONLY

 Pub Ser

 Pop’n

 Mar-05

 Change
ACT

 1:

 4.274812

 ACT

 4.246592

 0.66%

 NT

 1 :

 11.66712

 NT

 11.60359

 0.54%
NT

 1:

 8.561805

 NT

 8.63626

 -0.87%

 TAS

 1 :

 13.98591

 TAS

 14.21684

 -1.65%
TAS

 1:

 10.84685

 TAS

 10.92385

 -0.71%

 WA

 1 :

 15.36316

 WA

 15.498

 -0.88%
WA

 1:

 12.23732

 WA

 12.30441

 -0.55%

 SA

 1 :

 15.79388

 SA

 15.88665

 -0.59%
QLD

 1:

 12.62333

 QLD

 12.64384

 -0.16%

 QLD

 1 :

 16.38122

 QLD

 16.4885

 -0.65%
SA

 1:

 12.68877

 SA

 12.76078

 -0.57%

 ACT

 1 :

 17.92663

 ACT

 17.82213

 0.58%
NSW

 1:

 14.09199

 NSW

 14.06446

 0.20%

 NSW

 1 :

 18.35757

 NSW

 18.21604

 0.77%
VIC

 1:

 14.30399

 VIC

 14.28708

 0.12%

 VIC

 1 :

 19.47789

 VIC

 19.62647

 -0.76%

The highlighted entries show the states to
increase the ratio of over-government.

Playing with the ABC figures, it looks as
if NSW, at a state public service level, has gone from one public servant per
18.35757 persons to one for every 18.21604 in just a few months.

If you recall the last figures, the results
are almost ranked in the same order as size of population, with at two very
notable exceptions – the ACT (enough said) and NSW.

Considering that NSW has almost 40% (or
$2,000,000) more people than Victoria you would think that they would be ranked
last, however they have a much higher over-government ratio than Victoria. Is
this what Costa was talking about?

The recent figures are based on the March
2005 Public Sector Employee data and the original ones were based on September
2004 data. The population data is based on the 2001 census and the population
clock on the ABS website www.abs.gov.au.