"Every single" ACT directorate is taking steps to cut spending, the territory treasurer says, after one agency announced it was cutting more than 100 jobs.
The City and Environment Directorate announced between 3 and 5 per cent of the workforce, or roughly 130 roles, would be cut to "manage current budget pressures" on Thursday, May 28.
Treasurer Chris Steel said on Friday the ACT public service had grown by 30 per cent since 2019.
"The government wants all agencies to be really focused on expenditure and making sure that their directorates are sustainable, but also focused on the government's priorities, so every single directorate has been taking steps already," he said.
"The director-general of City and Environment Directorate has been really clear that Transport Canberra operations has been excluded from the process."
An ACT public service spokesperson said no other directorates had "currently adopted" the measures announced by the City and Environment Directorate.
"Directors-general will continue to manage their workforces to align with priority areas and remain within directorate budgets. There is no recruitment freeze," the spokesperson said.
"This approach forms part of the multi-year whole-of-government expenditure reform process which commenced in the 2025-26 budget. This includes reprioritisation and budget control measures, which ensures government expenditure is directed to priorities and delivers value for the community."
Speaking to ABC Canberra on Friday morning, CED director-general Dave Peffer said the cuts were not "too dissimilar" to the voluntary redundancy programs in many federal departments.
The ACT directorate employs about 4200 people, he said.
"130 [full-time equivalent staff] is not a small task... I'll certainly acknowledge that," Mr Peffer said.
"The directorate is still reasonably new, it's about 10 or 11 months in existence and it came together from three separate organisations, and what that means in practice is that we have multiple corporate teams that came together, multiple policy areas, multiple areas that manage programs or manage volunteers.
"There are some tasks that we're doing right now that perhaps we don't need to do... no, we're not going to stop picking up people's waste."
The director-general said other directorates would make their own decisions about cost-cutting to meet their budgets.
ACT Skills Minister Michael Pettersson told ABC Canberra on Friday there were "different levels of pressure" across the public service.
"I'm aware of some parts of the service that are experiencing pressures, it's definitely not uniform... I can't detail which ones more than others," he said.
"I'm not in a position to make any announcements to that nature... I can't preempt any consideration or decisions in that space, these are clearly very significant decisions that government has made and I recognise the impact that has on these workplaces and these workers."
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