A CanDo LNP government will revitalise front line services, restore accountability in government, and cut government waste and inefficiency.

LNP Leader Campbell Newman said the tired, 20-year Labor government had created a public service which suffered under a system where Ministers were not accountable for their failures and hardworking public servants were scapegoated in the media.

“A CanDo LNP government will encourage the return to a culture of frank and fearless advice from a professional and permanent public service led by Ministers who are accountable,” Mr Newman said.

“We will establish a real Ministerial Code of Conduct and set the highest standards of performance and behaviour for our Ministers and staff, including restoring the Westminster Convention of Ministerial Responsibility.

“An LNP government is committed to a permanent public service and we’ll work to increase the percentage of permanent public servants, particularly in front line service roles, and reduce the reliance on long term temporary contracts.

“We’re committed to a public service that focuses on revitalising front line services for Queensland. This can be achieved in part by refocusing management structures on improving front line services rather than on bureaucratic internal processes and procedures.

“An LNP Government will break apart the so-called ‘super-departments’ of DERM and DEEDI to restore accountability and reduce bureaucratic gridlock.

“We will reintroduce clear Ministerial responsibility for their departments, in line with the Westminster tradition of departments reporting to a single Minister.

“The CanDo LNP Team has a positive plan to get Queensland back on track and we will not engage in continuous departmental restructuring which paralyses the public service and distracts from delivering front line services for Queenslanders.

“An LNP Government will work with unions and public servants to identify existing waste within government as part of our War on Waste. We’ve also announced our plan to cut red tape by 20 per cent that will benefit Queensland families and businesses and reduce admin costs for government which currently has to deal with more than 90,000 pages of red tape and regulation.”

Mr Newman said Labor had failed to manage the public service – with expenses growing faster than the ability of the government and taxpayers to fund them.

“Under an LNP government there’ll be no forced redundancies.

“Restructuring will be managed through natural attrition, career advancement and training opportunities. There’ll always be jobs for hardworking public servants to contribute to a better Queensland. That’s why an LNP government will protect and revitalise front line roles in conjunction with unions and manage the overall growth in the entire public service.

“We see strong leadership from the Public Service Commission as also essential to achieving the mutual need for a productive and good value public sector.

“The LNP is committed to fair wages in return for fair outcomes based on performance and merit and will remove Labor’s arbitrary 2.5 per cent wage rise cap.

“An LNP Government will seek to grow government services in regional centres. This will see an increase in job opportunities for Queenslanders, such as regional call centres.

“Labor’s bureaucracy has spiralled out of control with hundreds of different government shop fronts, over 400 telephone numbers and hundreds of websites.

“This makes life difficult for all Queenslanders, especially for those in remote and regional areas and that’s why an LNP government will focus on delivering simpler and easier access to government services by tasking the Department of Public Works to undertake a study into a genuine one-stop shop solution for Queenslanders based on the successful Brisbane City Council and 13NYC models.”

Find out more about our A Public Service to Serve Queensland policy