The announcements came a day after Natural Resources and Mines Minister Andrew Cripps revealed 413 positions would be cut from his department. Some staff had already left but 360 employees would be affected, he said. Mr Dickson said his department would become more streamlined with cuts to the “bloated bureaucracy” and red tape, but front-line ranger services would be protected. “In cutting this waste, we have carefully considered which positions and programs are no longer needed and identified approximately 130 positions which cannot be supported,” he said. The Department of National Parks, Recreation, Sport and Racing had 1382 full-time equivalent staff members when a public sector audit was completed in June 2012.

More than half of the employees in the department were classed as being “front-line” workers. Mr Dickson acknowledged it was a difficult time for those affected. “I hope and pray that these people can find [new] jobs,” he told Nine News last night. A spokesman for Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney confirmed 148 positions were being cut from his Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning. Opposition Leader Annastacia Palaszczuk said the job cuts contradicted Mr Newman's pre-election claim that public servants had nothing to fear from an LNP government.

The June 2012 public sector audit found the Department of State Development, Infrastructure and Planning had 995 full-time equivalent staff members, none of whom were considered to be “front-line” workers. Mr Seeney's spokesman argued most of the cuts would occur in southeast Queensland, with the impact on the regions minimised. The latest announcements come in the lead up to the September 11 budget, which is likely to confirm the full extent of savings. Cuts that have been previously announced include 1970 jobs from the Department of Transport and Main Roads and related bodies, including 600 at state-owned road builder RoadTek. Other announcements have included about 200 job cuts in the first wave of savings at the Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry; and 40 job losses through the closure of the Darling Downs Correctional Centre near Toowoomba.

Education, Training and Employment Minister John-Paul Langbroek has also overseen hundreds of job cuts, including through the axing of the Skilling Queenslanders for Work program, communications positions and temporary IT contracts. Minister for Justice and Attorney-General Jarrod Bleijie has already abolished the Sentencing Advisory Council and the Queensland Workplace Rights Office and is yet to confirm other job cuts, including potentially hundreds through the outsourcing of the State Reporting Bureau, which provides written records of court proceedings. The government is yet to detail the extent of cuts in a number of agencies, including the largest government department, Queensland Health. The Queensland Industrial Relations Commission yesterday agreed to send the dispute over a new pay deal for tens of thousands of “core” public servants to arbitration. The decision is a step up from the assisted negotiations allowed under the previous conciliation stage and means the QIRC will rule on the proposed new pay and conditions.

The government has offered a pay rise of 2.2 per cent a year, but the Together union has cried foul over moves to axe clauses protecting employment security. The union has argued job security, not pay, is the most important aspect for negotiations, and last night predicted the arbitration process could take “somewhere between six months and a year” to complete. Yesterday's arbitration decision means the union is barred from taking industrial action, despite having previously warned of industrial “mayhem”. The government last night said Queenslanders would welcome the decision, adding that there were differences of opinion “not just between unions but within individual unions”. A spokesman for Glen Elmes, the Minister assisting the Premier on industrial relations, said Stadiums Queensland staff were members of the Together union but had voted to accept a 2.2 per cent pay offer.

“The overwhelming acceptance of the 2.2 per cent offer by Stadiums Queensland demonstrates that our employees are prepared to accept a fair deal even if the union hierarchy is more interested in playing political games,” he said in a statement. Together union secretary Alex Scott confirmed Stadiums Queensland staff had voted to accept the offer in a two-week direct ballot conducted by the government, but said aspects of the deal had already been stripped away. Mr Scott said Stadiums Queensland staff had been unaffected by July 31 directives voiding job security and no-outsourcing provisions in enterprise agreements, but legislation passed last week had broadened the removal of protections. He said the QIRC may refuse to register the agreement, or may register it while acknowledging certain clauses around job security were unenforceable in light of the legislation. “What the staff have voted for and what they'll get are two different things,” he said.

The Together union yesterday launched action in the Supreme Court challenging legislation passed last week to remove employment security and no-contracting-out clauses from existing enterprise agreements. It will argue the law is unconstitutional because it interferes with concluded judicial proceedings by overriding agreements certified by the QIRC, while undermining the independence of the QIRC. Treasurer Tim Nicholls said yesterday he was confident the changes the government had made were constitutionally valid.