Staff earmarked for redundancy after audit office finds department overstretched and failing in several of its functions

The federal Department of the Environment will make 250 of its leading specialists reapply for their jobs and make 30 of them redundant in the latest round of cost-cutting measures.

The department, which was recently judged by the audit office to be overstretched and failing in several of its functions, has a target of shedding 250 staff by Christmas.

A cadre of high-level specialists has been earmarked for redundancies, with Guardian Australia learning that unique research roles will be cut.

Staff working in areas such as environmental radioactivity, ecotoxicology, landscape ecology and Antarctic glaciology are among the 250 who have been asked to reapply for their jobs.

A letter sent by management to one member of this group, seen by Guardian Australia, states: “I am now formally declaring you potentially excess to the department’s requirements to ensure you have as much notice as possible should you wish to consider the option of seeking redeployment.”

Staff made redundant will have the opportunity of moving elsewhere in the public service, although those affected fear their specialist skills will probably not allow them to transfer to a suitable role.

Beth Vincent-Pietsch, deputy secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union, said morale within the department, which unveiled Gregory Andrews as the new threatened species commissioner on Wednesday, was “terribly low.”



“[Staff] are anxious and depressed that the crucial work that they do is not being valued by this government,” she said. “Environment is already taking a big hit to jobs and now it stands to lose some of its best and brightest people through an entirely unnecessary and divisive process.

“When 250 people walk out of environment’s doors by the end of the year, they take with them hundreds of years of accumulated knowledge and experience that will take years to replace.

“These people are some of Australia’s top scientists, many of whom are internationally recognised for the crucial work they do in, for example, tracking the melting of glacial ice, or coming up with new ways to protect aquatic ecosystems.”

In an email to staff, Gordon de Brouwer, secretary of the department, noted there had been “significant take-up” of the voluntary redundancy program but admitted many staff were concerned over the process.

An internal government review in April concluded that the environment department’s budget should be slashed from $460m in 2013-14 to $361m in 2017-18, requiring the loss of 670 jobs over this period – a quarter of the department's workforce.

A report by the Australian National Audit Office in June found the department did not have the right tools to assess environmental damage and was “passive” when dealing with business compliance with conditions.

According to the report, "the increasing workload on compliance monitoring staff over time has resulted in [the department] adopting a generally passive approach to monitoring proponents' compliance with most approval conditions”.

In May, de Brouwer told Senate estimates the department was not undergoing a “spill and fill” scheme – in which staff must reapply for their jobs – to meet the redundancies target.

“What we have announced is a voluntary redundancy of 250 for this calendar year. We are in our third voluntary redundancy round. What we have said is that we need that reduction in order to meet our budget going into 2014-15, into the upcoming budget.”

A spokeswoman for the environment department said: "The department identified a need to reduce overall staffing by approximately 250 to fit within budget. The department is working through a number of processes to address these budget pressures. This included the use of voluntary redundancies wherever possible."