A plan to cut 50 State Government media spinners has fallen victim to a working party, some name changes and a set of new acronyms, InDaily has been told.
Last December, then-Treasurer Jack Snelling (pictured) announced $464 million in Mid-Year Budget Review savings, including 50 media and communications jobs.
Under the proposal, departmental communications staff were to be moved into a centralised group within the Department of the Premier and Cabinet.
An internal public service email sent yesterday appears to show the centralisation part of the deal has gone ahead, but with extra media and communications staff being appointed.
The State Government, however, maintains plans to make the cuts will still be carried out, starting this financial year and across the next two years.
InDaily understands that after Snelling’s December announcement a senior executive from the Department of Communities and Social Inclusion was despatched to Premier and Cabinet to oversee the shift – and a working party was set up.
“The working party started, meetings were held and hands were thrown in the air – and nothing ever happened,” one departmental insider told InDaily.
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Seven months later, the government media and communications empire appears to be growing, with all State Government policy proposals to be filtered through a new group of media strategists.
The internal email, titled “Strategic Engagement and Communications”, boasts that it is “placing engagement and communications at the centre of policy creation”.
The email explains the creation of a new division inside the department.
“Strategic Engagement and Communications (SEC) has been established to ensure that our policy making and communications are in line and that we’re talking to people about things which are relevant to their lives.
“SEC will satisfy a previously unmet need to deliver whole of government long term communications strategies and engagement campaigns.
“SEC will use a variety of media and methods to engage with the community in policy making and problem solving to ensure that the nuances of major policy developments are well understood in the community and that policy responds to community need.”
The proposed cuts to departmental staff appear to have gone by the wayside as agencies keep their media responsibilities.
“Line agencies will continue to have primary responsibility for reactive media, internal and external stakeholder communication, and the portfolio announcements,” the email says.
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And then there are the name changes and new acronyms.
“SEC brings together a number of units responsible for whole-of-government communications into a single division.
“These units are the Strategic Communications Unit (SCU), Participation and Partnerships team and External Relations team.
“A number of marketing and communications strategists will also be appointed to complete the SEC structure.
“To more effectively align its role with SEC, the SCU has changed its name to Government Communications Advice (GCA).”
The email concludes with the advice that current roles continue.
“The whole of government work currently conducted from the SCU (now GCA) and the Participation and Partnerships team will continue; including policy and quality assurance in advertising and marketing communications and the delivery of community engagement consultation projects and associated whole of government policy.”
InDaily posed questions to the State Government yesterday, asking how many media and communications positions were abolished, how many have been created, when the plan to axe 50 jobs was abandoned and what the impact was on budgeted savings.
A departmental spokeswoman, Sandy Pitcher, said the savings task “is on track”.
“The establishment of the Strategic Engagement and Communications unit is consistent with the delivery of these savings,” Ms Pitcher said.
“No new positions have been created within the Strategic Engagement and Communications unit.
“The saving of 50 full time equivalent positions over three years through the centralisation of communications functions begins this financial year, and increases over the forward estimates.
“The government remains committed to meeting the communications savings measure set out in the Mid Year Budget Review.”
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