Public servants have seen nothing to reduce their concerns over large-scale job cuts in the sector.

The latest estimates indicate forced redundancies will be needed to meet the target of 12,000 fewer federal government employees.

Canberra Senator Kate Lundy said the cuts are confirmed in the Post-election Report from the Parliamentary Budget Office, and could start soon – with 6,000 Australian Public Service staff positions to be removed by June 2014.

“That’s one public service job lost every single hour until the end of the financial year. A further 6,000 jobs will go in the two years after that,” Senator Lundy said.

Reports say the cuts will come from vital services such as health, welfare and education. Some agencies that have been protected and thus will not experience cuts are; Australian Customs, the Australian Federal Police, the Australian Security Intelligence Organisation and Australian Secret Intelligence Service, serving military personnel and reservists.

Canberra Labor MP Gai Brodtmann says: “We now know where the cuts won’t come from, but we don’t know yet where they will come from, how they will be delivered and what impact they will have on frontline services.”

Prominent economist Dr Andrew Leigh finds it “hard to believe the speed and severity of the cuts won’t erode public services.”

“We have already heard how Centrelink call centres, hit by staff cuts, are struggling to meet customer needs. This disproportionately affects low-income Australians needing tailored support. The PBO notes that its findings are of ‘low or medium reliability’ because of the data available to it,” Dr Leigh said.

It difficult to tell whether it will even produce the supposed savings, Dr Leigh said.

“The savings are difficult to forecast because it relies on who leaves the APS and when.”

Some reports say the recent bushfires in New South Wales shows the need to have a fully-stocked and resilient public sector workforce, which can be geared to assist the masses of people now requiring help from their government.