Northern Territory Treasurer Nicole Manison has warned of more pain to come after announcing that about 300 public service positions will be axed as the government tries to repair its budget.
The cuts are part of a staffing cap that the government wants to set at last fiscal year's average staffing level of 21,118 after it had grown to an average 21,477 by the December quarter.
The public service is by far the Territory's biggest employer and growth it's growth over the last two decades had not been in line with population growth.
The NT government is currently dealing with what is arguably a budget crisis, with debt projected to soar to a massive $35.7 billion in a decade without fiscal changes and it is already borrowing to meet operational costs including staff wages.
When asked if more public servants would lose their jobs, Ms Manison said there clearly were "more tough decisions to come".
"There will be more efficiencies that we are looking for, that will mean in some cases less programs being delivered and some things might have to stop and often they do come with jobs," she told reporters.
Ms Manison said plans announced nearly a year ago to stop growth in public service numbers by freezing new positions as part of $800 million in savings had not worked so now they were simply cutting 300 jobs.
Department chief executives' performances would be monitored monthly and had 12 months to meet the cap and recruitment for some agencies would have to stop.
"The $867 million deficit left by the CLP and the Federal Government's $500 million annual GST reduction means tough decisions are needed to fix the Territory budget," she said.
"Fixing the budget allows us to keep investing in job-creating projects, tackling crime and generational change."
Prominent West Australian government and business figure John Langoulant is conducting a root-and-branch review of NT government spending.
