By Angela Dorizas

Governments must strategically plan public service delivery for the next 40 years to cope with a population of 36 million, a public sector union has said.

In response to the release of the 2010 Intergenerational Report, the Queensland Public Sector Union (QPSU) has called on the Government to consult with the community and unions to develop a plan for future public service delivery.

QPSU general secretary Alex Scott said Queenslanders were particularly concerned about the trend towards short term, contractor and consultant services in public service delivery.

“Queenslanders have a right to quality public service delivery, to quality public infrastructure that doesn’t cause them hip pocket pain by syphoning extra taxpayers’ dollars into private sector pockets,” Mr Scott said.

He said the intergenerational report confirmed what the QPSU was already advocating – investment in public service capacity.

“For governments to be confident they are ready and able to deliver quality services in the future it needs to invest now in keeping that capacity in-house,” Mr Scott said.

“As skilled labour access becomes more challenging, the only way future governments can be confident in its quality of public service delivery is to build and continuously develop capability, to value its public sector workers.”