Abetz cuts 50 hours a week from regional Service Tasmania centres

Premier Rockliff has put Eric Abetz in charge of slashing access to the services regional Tasmanians rely on, cutting 50 hours a week from five of the state’s most remote Service Tasmania locations. 

Service Tasmania centres in Queenstown, Whitemark, Currie, Campbell Town, and Oatlands are well on their way to becoming ‘No Service Tasmania’. 

Opening hours are being cut, with staff advised they will be redeployed to fill the customer facing service gap from a call-centre, or face a reduction in hours. 

• Queenstown – 32.5 to 16 hours per week, reduction of 16.5 hours a week;
• Whitemark – 20 to 10 hours per week, reduction of 10 hours a week;
• Currie – 20 to 10 hours per week, reduction of 10 hours a week;
• Oatlands – 25 to 20 hours per week, reduction of 5 hours a week; and 
• Campbell Town – 25 to 16.5 hours per week, reduction of 8.5 hours a week. 

For people living in regional and rural parts of the state, Service Tasmania is the front door to government — providing access to licences, registrations, payments, permits, information and a range of essential services.

Once staff and opening hours are cut, they will be difficult to restore. Regional communities are right to fear that today’s reduced hours could become tomorrow’s closure. Are Beaconsfield, George Town, Deloraine, St Helen’s or Longford shops next?

These callous cuts will have a devastating impact on our regional communities, where distance, limited public transport, work commitments, unreliable phone and internet connection, and digital literacy challenges already make accessing government services difficult. 

The Liberals promised to support and stand by regional Tasmanians.

Instead, regional Tasmanians are being strong-armed into reduced access to vital services, so Premier Rockliff and Eric Abetz can pay for 13 years of Liberal waste.