WA Premier Colin Barnett says about 1500 hundred public sector jobs will be cut, and hinted that his Government will not be able to deliver a surplus in 2014-15 due to rough iron ore prices.

The Premier gave word that about 1500 jobs will go this morning, with voluntary redundancies offered in most cases.

Announcing the large-scale sacking, Mr Barnett said he was forced  to make "harsh and fundamental changes" he expects will save about $2 billion over the forward estimates, and about $230 million this year. 

The WA Government announced a raft of money-saving moves today.

A further 1 per cent efficiency dividend will be applied across the public sector, with the exception of schools.There will also be a 15 per cent reduction in expenditure on non-essential road maintenance, and 10 per cent will be cut from the operating subsidies of Synergy, the Water Corporation and LandCorp.

WA Treasurer Mike Nahan has been warning that infrastructure spending could be on the block too, as the Government grapples with its looming Budget gaps, and in an interview just one day later the Premier said he was looking for “savings across government”.

“You can't guarantee something like that but my objective is to always run a surplus,” Mr Barnett said.

“With the fall in iron ore price and further cuts to GST, that will be very difficult to achieve this year.”

“In the long term there'll be some cutbacks on both recurrent and capital spending.

“We have to look at cutting government spending and to the extent possible, the burden will be borne by the public sector.”

The Community and Public Sector Union says 7500 public service jobs have already been cut since 2010.

Public servants have already accepted a pay deal over three years that is lower than the official Australian Bureau of Statistics measure of inflation.

“We are of the opinion that our members have been more than tolerant,” CPSU WA secretary Toni Walkington said.

The Civil Contractors Federation says cutting infrastructure spending would not be wise either.

The body representing WA's civil construction industry urged the Government to make better use of public-private partnerships, bring in user-pays solutions and tap into superannuation funds.