Quarter of workforce to be cut at another regional agency in govt restructure

The latest agency hit is WaterNSW, which has announced it will cut about 300 jobs from its workforce of 1200 so it can significantly reduce costs.

It said in a statement: "As a result of the IPART determinations, WaterNSW is in a financial situation with significantly reduced funding and will be unable to continue delivering all its current functions in the same way.

"To put the size of the challenge in numbers, we now need to find a further $80 million each year in cost savings."

It comes after the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development proposed a reduction of up to 165 staff as part of a restructure for the regional-focused agency. Many roles were vital for natural disaster response. Transport for NSW will also lose 950 positions.

A day later, TAFE NSW said it would cut 100 jobs, many from regional centres including Dubbo and Orange.

NSW Nationals leader Dugald Saunders said the government's "pillaging" of regional NSW was continuing with hundreds of jobs on the chopping block at WaterNSW.

"At a time when half the state is under water and the other half is slipping further into drought, you need to ask how the government could possibly justify this decision when our water security is more important than ever," Mr Saunders said.

"Not only is this a critical blow to the important work these employees do for NSW, but it will devastate even more families by ripping these roles from our country communities.

"It's another gut-wrenching call which once again shows a complete lack of understanding about what our regional areas need."

The Australian Service Union condemned WaterNSW's announcement, saying it would "weaken the state's climate preparedness".

The union's NSW and ACT secretary, Angus McFarland, said the announcement came without consultation and put at risk the environmental and water management delivered by the current specialist workforce, which had decades of unique expertise.

"The 300 workers who will lose their jobs are responsible for making sure our water supply is reliable and safe. They manage and maintain dams and other infrastructure to make sure water gets where it's needed - whether that's to communities, farms, or the environment," Mr McFarland said.

"The people of NSW are bearing the brunt of the climate crisis. Floods are becoming increasingly frequent and intense, and it's the workers at WaterNSW who play a critical role in managing water flow and protecting communities as best they can.

"With climate impacts escalating, it's hard to see how a state-owned corporation can justify cutting the very jobs that protect our water and communities.

"Experts have warned that governments need to spend more, not less, on essential water infrastructure and services to improve resilience and mitigate impacts, yet hundreds of essential water workers are being let go.

"What plan does the state government have in place for the next inevitable flood? How can the state government expect to respond to the climate crisis challenges if critical capacity is stripped away?

"Claiming these cuts are about saving money doesn't add up. Gutting the workforce now will only cost the state more in the long run. Plus just last week, IPART gave WaterNSW permission to increase their prices by 10 per cent per year for the next three years.

A WaterNSW spokesperson said the agency had already deferred $860 million of capital works and cut $133 million in operational costs from the business in the forward five-year period, but it needed to find additional savings.

"We are performing a fundamental reset of WaterNSW, becoming a leaner, smaller and more focused business, with formal consultation on planned changes commencing today [Monday]," the spokesperson said.

"We will work hard to limit customer impacts throughout this period of transition - however, given the size of the funding gap, we may be unable to continue delivering our current functions, activities and projects in the same way."

As part of the process, the spokesperson said the agency would reduce the number of executives and senior managers by more than 30 per cent. The total workforce wold decrease by about 300 employees through a voluntary redundancy process.