While the Federal Government continues its decentralisation push, over 1,800 staff have been cut in regional areas.

The CPSU says its figures show the government has shed staff in the bush through efficiency dividends that have been in place since 2013.

Some struggling regional areas have been buoyed by the chance of boosting employment through the Coalition’s decentralisation drive to move jobs from Canberra, Sydney and Melbourne.

But the public service has shrunk 15 per cent since 2012 across regional areas analysed by the union.

In says some areas have seen much higher cuts - 33 per cent in the Darwin statistical area, 28 per cent in Logan-Beaudesert, Queensland and 25 per cent in south-east Tasmania.

North-west Victoria (23 per cent), Mackay (14 per cent) and the Murray region in NSW (16 per cent) have seen significant cuts to the ranks of public sector staff too. 

The CPSU says the job losses amount to a $449 million blow to the regional economy. 

Australian Public Service Commissioner John Lloyd disputes the figures, saying the composition of the APS workforce is “always changing”.

“Staff numbers are not static and are subject to change based on workforce needs,” he said.

The union has told a parliamentary inquiry that employment in bush towns should be boosted by reversing the cuts, and creating programs to prioritise regions for new jobs.

“The public sector is itself in need of urgent repair, as decades of public sector cuts have left the APS understaffed, under resourced and with a degraded policy development and service delivery capacity that has a substantial negative impact on the community, and on regional communities in particular,” it said. 

“Moving agencies, functions, and staff to new locations does not rebuild APS capacity, and risks exacerbating the problem.”

The CPSU says the government should increase its regional presence by establishing new agencies in the bush.

“Treating the public sector solely as a new source of economic stimulus for struggling communities ignores both the public policy objectives of the work and the benefit of maintaining a centre of excellence in public administration in the national capital,” the union said.

“Being located in the national capital ensures a responsive and more collaborative public service that is focused on the national rather than sectional geographic interests.”