Reform Everywhere!!! Wholesale Job Cuts & New Roles to Meet New Demands
Members would be aware of reports from the Department of Primary Industries and Regional Development (DPIRD) Secretary identifying extensive levels of reform across a number of divisions of the agency for cost cutting to meet budgetary savings and a refocus on core business.
After high level briefings by Senior DPIRD representatives from the respective divisions on Monday 28 July 2025, the PSA was provided with the 10 Change Management Plans on Tuesday 29 July 2025.
They paint a sober picture of programs cut and new, refined priorities.
The 10 Change Management Plans include:
- Biosecurity and Food Safety
- Agriculture
- Climate and Natural Resources
- Strategy and Regulatory Policy
- Wollongbar AgEnviro Lab
- Strategy Media and Ministerial Services
- Regional Programs and Partnerships
- Rural Assistance Authority
- NSW Resources
- Research Assurance
The Damage
The result is a proposed reduction of 165 roles across all classifications, but this only tells part of the story. 165 is the net figure with the gross figure of proposed job cuts set at 266, with 111 created. There is no guarantee despite how much the PSA pushes, the new roles would match the skill sets or grades of affected staff. Nor the roles be within the regional centres they reside.
No classifications have been spared, with the Professional Officer cohort most savaged. At the other end of the spectrum, more than 10 per cent of roles proposed for deletion are at the lowest levels of Clerk 1/2 and General Scale Clerk.
Don’t Focus on On-Going Staff
The PSA has already told the DPIRD Secretary the agency should first find savings through reductions in the Senior Executive Service that have swelled well past 150, contingent labour and temporary worker rather than cutting ongoing roles. The deletion of on-going roles especially those located in Regional NSW should be a last resort.
The PSA has also questioned rationales for cutting service delivery functions. The PSA maintains whilst new priorities should be supported, it shouldn’t be at the expense of those currently in operations. Primary producer industries will have their support slashed, thus a phased approach over time would be the more appropriate to achieve these new priorities.
Other operations proposed to close are based upon flimsy arguments that ‘hold little water’. Some areas have been left with inadequate resourcing for years and are now being told they are ineffective.
For Some, Discussions of Mobility for Staff are a Pipedream
Whilst job matching and mobility provisions are highlighted as a means to reduce the detrimental effects of wholesale job cuts, the often-niche roles administered by DPIRD staff make the likelihood of matching or redeployment all but hopeless.
In many cases, specialist/technical roles are being deleted and proposed to be replaced with Clerks. Other classifications have been cut so hard that they have little to no capacity to be redeployed or matched into other roles in DPIRD.
Consultation Over Two Weeks? – Yeah Right
The proposed consultation timeframes of two weeks proposed by DPIRD are wholly inadequate to administer reform of this magnitude. By posing such inadequate measures, the PSA has the impression the agency doesn’t really want to consult with its workforce.
The PSA does not and will not stand for it.
Where to from Here?
Once the announcement is made official on Thursday 31 July 2025, the PSA will be providing our members the opportunity to review Change Management Plans (CMPs) and to formulate responses to the different plans. Be on the lookout for PSA representatives in your workplaces and via Teams. Talk to your colleagues, ask questions at briefings. Provide the PSA with your feedback.
The PSA Initial Response
PSA Assistant General Secretary Troy Wright says “reform of this magnitude should be administered in a phased and staged approach to ensure that there is a workforce fit to continue service without interruptions”.
“The O’Kane Review provided DPIRD and this Government with a means to modernise the provision of research, priorities and resourcing. These change proposals fail to consider the complex and highly technical elements of service provision to agricultural communities. Instead of doing this in steps and over time in a methodic and considered manner, DPIRD has attempted to do this in one foul swoop”.
“In effect, this is not the modernisation of support to regional communities and primary producers, it is the lowest common denominator of support.”
“The job losses will hurt regional communities, and the loss of services and programs will hurt those regional primary producers. And the thousands of years of DPIRD research and programs will be lost to those who need them most. That will ultimately cost NSW regional communities and primary producers more than the current black hole in the budget.”
“Didn’t the State Government just give the agency an extra $140 million? Or was it really just smoke and mirrors?”
PSA Departmental Committee Delegates
PSA Staff
Shane Howes
PSA Industrial Officer
Graydon Plumridge
PSA Organiser