Key events
Benita Kolovos
Victorian opposition proposes hiring freeze to tackle state debt
The Victorian opposition leader, Jess Wilson, will announce a plan to implement an indefinite hiring freeze across all back-office public service roles if elected in November, in an effort to bring down the state’s ballooning debt.
Wilson will announce the plan at a Liberal party fundraiser today, which she will say could save taxpayers $22bn over a decade.
She said the hiring freeze would affect 46 government departments and agencies but excludes frontline roles such as teachers, nurses and police. She said the savings would be achieved through “natural attrition,” which involves not hiring replacements when people leave their positions.
The opposition said the hiring freeze will remain in effect until Victorian public service staffing levels return to the population-adjusted equivalent of 2014-15 levels.
Wilson said in a statement:
Rightsizing back-office public service roles is a difficult, but necessary measure I am willing to take to guarantee essential services and repair Victoria’s finances.
Tuesday’s budget showed a $727m operating surplus this financial year and forecasts further surpluses each year across the forward estimates.
But it also forecasts that debt will grow from $165.3bn in June 2026 to $199.3bn in 2029-30. By then, interest payments on state debt are forecast to total $11.82bn – or $32m a day.
About 35% of the government’s revenue in the coming financial year – $41.13bn – is expected to be spent on public sector wages. This is despite the government committing in December to a plan to slash 1,000 public sector jobs in December, including 300 executives, and merge several entities.
Woman in court over alleged membership of Islamic State
A 32-year-old woman will appear in court in Sydney this morning after being charged on her arrival back in Australia last night with being a member of Islamic State.
Janai Safar was part of a group of 13 women and children who arrived back in separate flights – one into Sydney and one into Melbourne – last night.
She was escorted off the plane by police officers and later charged with entering, or remaining in, declared areas, and being a member of a terrorist organisation, Australian federal police said on Thursday night.
Both offences carry a maximum penalty of up to 10 years’ imprisonment.
Two other women from the group – Kawsar Abbas, 53, and her daughter Zeinab Ahmad, 31 – were arrested by officers from the Victorian joint counter-terrorism team at Melbourne airport. Abbas’ other daughter, 33-year-old Zahra Ahmad, was not arrested or charged. The women arrived with eight children.
Here’s our full story:
Welcome
Good morning and welcome to our live news blog. I’m Martin Farrer with the top overnight stories and then it will be Nick Visser with the main action.
A woman who arrived back in Australia last night after spending more than seven years in Syrian detention camps will appear at Downing Centre local court this morning charged with allegedly entering a declared conflict zone and joining Islamic State. More coming up.
