The Australian government directed all department heads to cut staff by 5 per cent on this day in 1951.
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A story on the front page of The Canberra Times suggested the loss might be impossible to bear for some, with one officer referenced in the report using the example of "a vital government function employing only a handful of employees".
"If the instruction were to be fully implemented it would mean total abolition of numerous small departments carrying out valuable national work," it read.
"[The officer] admitted, however, that there would be room for substantial reduction in routine sections of a number of departments, especially in relation to clerks and employees whose work entailed little more than the tabulating of files and keeping of records."
Another officer said the threat of the reduction of the public service by 10,000 people had resulted in "an amazing speed-up in the volume of work handled in the general sections" of his department.
