Government calls for yet another review, while Watt Review recommendations ignored

With just one month to go before the Government was supposed to have implemented all recommendations of the landmark Independent Review of the Tasmanian State Service, it has been revealed that the Government has delivered only 15 of those 77 recommendations.

Commissioned in 2019 and handed down in 2021, the Watt Review proposed a comprehensive roadmap to modernise the State Service, improve productivity, and enable government to deliver more with less.

Four years on, just 20 per cent of those recommendations have been fully implemented. Instead, the Government is now signalling its intention to embark on yet another round of “efficiency measures” and departmental service delivery reviews. The Treasurer has called for “carefully measured action” to pursue efficiencies and ensure the public service can do more with less.

This approach defies common sense. If the goal is efficiency and productivity, why has the Government failed to implement the very reforms designed to achieve those outcomes?

The Watt Review provides a detailed blueprint for a more effective State Service. Fully implementing those recommendations would deliver meaningful reform, without the delay, cost, and uncertainty of launching fresh reviews.

Instead, Tasmanians are being asked to accept a familiar pattern: another review, more promises, and continued inaction. This raises serious questions about the Government’s commitment to genuine reform of the public service.

At a time when Tasmania faces fiscal pressures and increasing demand for public services, the priority should be clear: deliver on existing commitments before commissioning new ones.

The question is simple: wouldn’t it be more productive—and more efficient—to finish the job that was started in 2021?

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