The federal government is being lobbied to transfer some of its smaller agencies to Tasmania instead of the workforce being clustered in the nation’s capital.
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On Wednesday, Tasmanian Liberal Senator Jonathon Duniam revealed he had started working with the government to call for agencies within the agriculture, fisheries and tourism sectors to consider relocating to the state.
Just 2.6 per cent of federal public servant jobs are currently located in Tasmania, prompting calls for employment opportunities to be spread to the regions.
“As we've seen with the Australian Antarctic Division, having these agencies close to where their clients or business is based not only improves the service they offer but boosts the local economy,” Senator Duniam said.
“With a lower cost of living and better quality of life there is no better place for these public services.”
According to the Australian Public Service Employment Database, Tasmania has a total of 3985 federal public service staff working in the state, the second lowest percentage of jobs in the nation.
More than 85 per cent of those employed worked in Hobart, about 8 per cent in Launceston, and 5.6 per cent in the West and North-West.
About 37 per cent of all federal public servants worked in Canberra.
Western Tiers MLC Greg Hall said Tasmania was a decentralised state and so it was logical to have jobs in different regions to accommodate this.
“Any government should make serious attempts to decentralise or to move some of the public sector employees or departments out into the regions,” Mr Hall said.
“There’s no reason in this day and age with the communication we have why that can’t be done.
“We need to actually physically relocate as much of the bureaucracy, or the departments, out into the regions.”
The Tasmanian government said it would support the relocation of federal positions to Tasmania.
A government spokesperson said that at state level, Mineral Resources Tasmania had already been moved to Burnie and the Office of the Coordinator General to Launceston.
The data showed about 85 per cent of staff in the federal Department of Infrastructure and Regional Development resided in Canberra.
More than 81 per cent of those public servants employed by the federal Department of Employment were in Canberra, 89.7 per cent in the Department of Finance, and 95 per cent in Department of Treasury.
In Tasmania, about half of federal public servants employed in the state worked for the Department of Human Services, and about 16 per cent worked for the Australian Taxation Office.