Today’s Budget Estimates hearing revealed that the huge blowouts in overtime costs in the Tasmania Prison Service have been dramatically reduced in recent years.
Overtime expenditure from the prisons reached $5.1 million in 2010-11. Today it was revealed that this year’s prison overtime bill is just $2.7 million as of 30 April, down further from the $3.5 million for the 2013-14 financial year.
The Hodgman Liberal Government is committed to maintaining fiscal discipline across the State Budget so we can invest in essential services into the future.
The changes put in place by the management of the TPS are a great example of this in action.
The reduction in overtime has been achieved through improvements in rostering, managing general staffing numbers, sick leave, workers compensation and other absences.
There has also been additional recruitment of correctional officers to avoid reliance on expensive overtime to maintain staffing levels.
The most recent selection process will see 22 candidates appointed to fill a recruit training school commencing next week. It is anticipated a further recruitment process will be run later in 2015.
Reducing overtime not only helps the budget, but it also leads to a much better working environment for prison staff, as demonstrated by significant decreases in sick leave and workers compensation claims since 2010-11.
The Department Justice has also made significant savings in the area of supplies and consumables, with those costs for the Department falling $913,000 in between 1 July 2014 and 30 April 2015 when compared with the same period in the previous year.
This has been achieved through reduced costs for things like consultants, property expenses, travel and transport, materials, supplies and equipment and election related expenditure.
The previous Labor-Green Government consistently overspent in the area of supplies and consumables and the Liberal Government is successfully reining in this expenditure across Departments.