Editor's Blog

In a trade-off with the unions for wage increases totalling 6% over 2 years, the department of immigration is seeking to axe at least 680 positions, according to a report on the ABC.

The proposed job cuts amount to about 5 percent of the total workforce according to the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU). It says this will put the staff “already struggling to deal with rapidly growing international passenger and freight numbers’ under tremendous pressure.

"This attempt to slash nearly 700 jobs is outrageous and shows just how ridiculous the Government's funding of Immigration and Border Protection is if the department has to cut this many jobs just to get closer to maintaining existing pay," national secretary Nadine Flood said.

Shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh and the Opposition's employment spokesman Brendan O'Connor added their voices to the criticism. In a statement to the ABC, they said a reduced department workforce would struggle to manage an expected rise in immigration over the next few years.

"Over the past decade, no OECD country has seen a faster rate of immigration than Australia," they said in a statement.

"Many of those coming here already face long delays in the processing of their paperwork because of the department's workload. Immigration's own figures show overseas migration to Australia is set to grow from 193,100 in 2015 to 246,500 by 2019 - an increase of 28 per cent. Shadow assistant treasurer Andrew Leigh and the Opposition's employment spokesman Brendan O'Connor

"How will the department manage this new inflow if its workforce is slashed by five per cent?"