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Jobs axed: Bombshell Transport for NSW email reveals nearly 1000 jobs set to go as part of restructure

Kimberley Braddish
The Nightly
Transport for NSW Secretary Josh Murray.
Transport for NSW Secretary Josh Murray. Credit: AAP

Transport for NSW has revealed it will slash more than 1000 jobs as part of a significant restructuring effort in an announcement that has rocked the department.

Secretary Josh Murray informed staff via email on Wednesday that around 950 senior service manager and award roles would be eliminated, alongside more than 300 senior executive positions.

Mr Murray acknowledged the impact of the cuts, saying, “we do not make this decision lightly” and stressed the necessity of creating a sustainable model for the future.

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“We have to get back to a model that is sustainable for the long term, delivers on our commitments, and provides appropriate career paths for our people,” he said in the internal memo.

He added: “That also means reducing duplication, removing unclear reporting lines, and ensuring all our people are clear on what’s expected of them. I know this news will be unsettling for many of you.

“Change of this scale is never easy, and it affects all our people, their work, their teams, and their sense of certainty about the future.

“In the last five years, Transport for NSW underwent a significant period of growth – with a 30 per cent increase in the (transport senior service manager) and award cohort combined. This largely occurred during and after the COVID period, with 3000 extra staff appointed.”

Despite the extensive cuts, frontline service roles are reportedly safe from the restructure.

However, the move has drawn criticism from opposition figures. State Shadow Minister for Roads Natalie Ward called the cuts “brutal”, alleging they were implemented to fund recent union wage deals.

“These are the brutal cuts that pay for the union wage deals. The people being sacked are not senior bureaucrats—they’re the engine room of the Department, and their mistake was not joining the RTBU,” Ms Ward said.

“These decisions send a clear message: under Labor, it’s union first, commuters second.”

The announcement comes amid ongoing pressures to streamline the NSW public sector which employs a significant portion of the State’s workforce.

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