The Community and Public Sector Union has accused Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner of breaking his word, after the Government said it would slash $57.25 million from the Foreign Affairs Department's budget and cut 44 jobs.
The department will shed 24 Canberra-based positions and has ordered 20 overseas officers to return, including one Beijing-based employee working on the China-Australia free trade agreement.
CPSU national president Mark Gepp said the union was extremely disappointed by the punitive efficiency dividend the Government was imposing on the service.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd said before the election his Government would take a meat axe to the bloated public service. He said he would increase the efficiency dividend the public service's requirement to cut administrative costs each year by 2 percentage points to 3.25 per cent.
Mr Gepp said the union took Mr Tanner at his word last November, when he said the efficiency dividend would not impact on DFAT functions and postings.
"Six weeks later something drastic has happened to change his mind. He's got to now explain himself to the families who will now find themselves out of work because of these decisions," he said.
He was not reassured by Government statements that the job cuts would be achieved by natural attrition.
"Why should we believe any of that, because last November the Finance Minister came out publicly and said that the efficiency dividend would not impact on DFAT functions and diplomatic postings? Six weeks later the story is completely different."
He said the efficiency dividend was going to apply right across the public service and the union was extremely concerned about the lengths and the depths the cuts would have on the public sector, particularly in Canberra.
Mr Rudd said yesterday that the whole Government, including DFAT, needed to tighten its fiscal belt in the face of rising inflation.
"In terms of specifics, this will mean a trimming of the level of representation in a number of our missions abroad. None of those missions will be closed," he said.
Immediately after the election, Mr Rudd's department announced the abolition of the Government Communications Unit in line with Labor's policy.
This was estimated to save about $20million over three years.
The National Capital Authority was also a rationalisation target, but a spokeswoman for the agency would not comment on changes yesterday.
Foreign Minister Stephen Smith said he did not expect the reduced budget to affect Australian travellers, who relied on overseas missions for a range of services when they got in trouble overseas.
"We are confident there won't be a reduction in the capacity of the Government to deliver upon its foreign policy priorities. Equally, we believe that the thinning which has occurred, the reduction of staff levels overseas which has occurred, is done in a way that enables those posts to continue to do their core business," he said. A Foreign Affairs spokeswoman said her department's budget, like other agencies', was affected by the implementation of the Government's election commitments.
It was unavoidable in an organisation like DFAT, which had little program funding, that budget reductions would impact on staffing levels.
Almost a third of the budget cuts, or $19 million, would be saved through the Government's decision to reverse funding for the previous government's Australia On The World Stage initiative.
A further $1.2 million would be saved by reducing other cultural relations funding. None of the cuts would be security related. All staffing level reductions would take place through natural attrition. No staff would be made redundant to achieve savings.
The department's administration budgets would be cut by $14.35 million, largely through reducing travel and representation funds.