Canberrans need only look out their window for the reason Director-General Dave Peffer has made a major error in judgment in trying to cut 130 jobs out of the City and Environment Directorate.
No matter where across Canberra you look, perhaps except for land controlled by the National Capital Authority, our city needs work. Grass is out of control. Our sporting fields aren't up to scratch.
Waste is being left to rot on the side of roads. Footpaths are cracked. None of this is the fault of the workers who are run off their feet trying to both allocate and get the work done, but there are simply not enough of them. We need more workers, not fewer.
These are the things Canberrans see every day. What you don't necessarily see, but benefit from, is the workers undertaking a range of important policy work on issues like the environment and of course there is all the work that goes into planning our city, our bush capital.
And we can't forget Access Canberra who seem to do everything. They sort out our licences, do our car registration, births, deaths and relationships and Fix My Street. Canberrans know we can call Access Canberra and be directed to the right area. But for how much longer?
Make no mistake, Dave Peffer wants to gut the directorate to fix his bottom line. We saw it at Canberra Health Services and, like déjà vu, here we are again. At Canberra Health Services, Dave gave commitment after commitment that front-line jobs wouldn't be cut.
Sound familiar?
Then, after the CPSU was forced to use Work Health and Safety laws to seize documents, it came to light that in fact, he had been cutting front-line jobs. After extensive CPSU member campaigning and the involvement of Worksafe ACT because of major safety concerns, most of those jobs were won back. But who paid in the interim? Canberrans trying to access public health care.
Now Dave Peffer has been moved to City and Environment Directorate and is at it again. And again, Canberrans will pay if he gets his way. Workers left behind will have to shoulder more work with less people power.
All the usual assurances are there. Work will be stopped or redistributed. No one will be asked to do more.
CPSU members have heard it all before, including during the 2025 recruitment freeze - or as the head honchos insisted on calling it, the recruitment "pause". What happened then? Jobs were left vacant for months and the remaining workforce were expected to do it all. Workers were burnt out and morale plummeted. Many teams have never recovered.
So, what can we expect if Dave Peffer succeeds in these job cuts? Calls will take longer to be answered.
City services will be slashed; grass will grow even taller. Everything will take longer.
Peffer gets paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop our city, plan for our city, and make our city cleaner, safer and better by investing in public services. But instead he is jumping from directorate to directorate cutting important public sector jobs.
Make no mistake, this is the canary in the coal mine. If Canberrans let Dave Peffer make these cuts, more directors-general will follow in his footsteps. That will mean more jobs gone from our public service and a degradation of the services that we rely on every day. And we don't know who is next - it could be Canberra Health Services or Education.
The CPSU is calling on Dave Peffer to reverse these job cuts.
That also means Chief Minister Andrew Barr and his cabinet stepping up to provide appropriate funding to the ACT public service. Our public service. Services Canberrans and their families rely on each and every day.
The upcoming budget on June 10 is their opportunity to step up. To step up and respect trained and trusted public sector employees and reverse any decisions to cut their jobs. It's an opportunity to show Canberrans that they will continue to do what's best for our growing city and make our territory the best place to live.
Otherwise, Canberrans will be living with Peffer and Barr's city degrading legacy for generations to come.
