CPSU refuses to back Labor in Victorian election, slams job cuts and $1.2bn consultant spend

The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) will announce on Wednesday that it will not support the Labor government in the upcoming Victorian state election on 28 November. The decision adds the CPSU to a growing list of unions that have either refused to back Labor or are actively campaigning against the party.

Although the CPSU’s Victorian branch is not formally affiliated with Labor, it has historically worked closely with the party. Secretary Jiselle Hanna told Guardian Australia that the union can no longer support the government. “If Ben Carroll’s government won’t commit to no job cuts in the public service, then our union cannot support him,” she said.

Labor has pursued a series of cuts to the Victorian public service (VPS), the administrative subset of the broader public sector, in an effort to curb employee expenses, the state’s largest cost centre. The cuts have included roughly 1,000 VPS roles – more than 300 of them executive – and the merging of several government entities after an independent review led by Helen Silver last year. Labor claims the changes have delivered $4 billion in savings while leaving frontline positions untouched.

As of June 2025, the VPS employed about 58 000 staff, compared with nearly 400 000 across the entire public sector. Hanna said that since the Silver review there have been over 200 additional restructures, many resulting in redundancies, job losses and pay cuts. “The public service used to be a reliable and secure place to build a career – that job security doesn’t exist any more, it’s been replaced with precarious employment,” she added.

The opposition Coalition has pledged an indefinite hiring freeze for all back‑office public service roles if it wins government, promising $22 billion in savings over ten years. The freeze would remain until VPS staffing levels return to the population‑adjusted equivalent of 2014‑15, the last year the Coalition held power.

Hanna argued that both Labor and the Coalition’s focus on the distinction between frontline and back‑office roles overlooks critical work performed by public servants, including directing firefighters during bushfires, analysing DNA and ballistics, developing school curricula and inspecting childcare centres.

While the union acknowledges that “budget savings need to come from somewhere,” it warns that cuts to the public service are likely to increase reliance on external consultants – a trend she described as “privatisation by stealth.”

Union analysis of Victorian government annual reports since 2017‑18 shows Labor has spent $1.2 billion on consultants across ten departments. The Department of Treasury and Finance accounts for the largest share, about $222 million since 2017, while the Department of Energy, Environment and Climate Action recorded the highest annual spend of roughly $86 million in the 2024‑25 financial year.

The CPSU’s stance underscores growing tension between the party and organized labour ahead of a tightly contested election, with the union’s criticism centring on job security, restructuring frequency and the scale of consultant expenditure.