Union: 900 Ipswich public servants have been axed
THE Newman government's job cuts will cost the Ipswich economy $68 million and leave 900 people jobless, according to figures compiled by the Queensland Council of Unions.
The council claims a large number of the 14,000 public servants axed since March are Ipswich residents, even if their jobs are based in the state capital.
But Ipswich MP Ian Berry has rejected the figure, labelling it "union scaremongering".
He said he was only aware of six public servants losing jobs actually based in Ipswich.
Premier Campbell Newman has made large-scale reductions to the state's payroll since taking office.
Mr Berry downplayed the impact of the cuts in Ipswich.
"The very few regional-based people who do take a redundancy will, in most cases, leave with more than a year's pay, so any short-term effect on the local economy will be very minimal, if non-existent," he said.
QCU president John Battams said the cuts had left a profound impact on Ipswich.
"Ipswich is suffering, along with a lot of other areas which are feeling the brunt of it," he said.
"There are two areas of cuts. There are the public servants, and with fewer jobs there is less money circulating in the economy.
"The second is the cuts to funding. That affects community groups and marginalised people."
Mr Berry said that the QCU claims of huge job losses in Ipswich were "just plain wrong".
"The unions' claims of huge job losses in the region is three times more than they claimed in a media release a week ago," he said.
"With the building of Icon Tower, which will see 1200 public servants move, I'm ensuring that hundreds of public service jobs are coming to Ipswich."
