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Posted: 2018-07-20 12:34:15

"We recognise how important it is to keep our wages expenses under control," she said.

"And this is going to be a very key priority of my government this term."

Ms Palaszczuk emailed public servants on Friday after the announcement to reassure them the plan would not include forced redundancies.

"Most importantly, I would like to assure you of employment security," she said.

"Your hard work is valued and your efforts appreciated."

The ballooning public service has come at a big cost for taxpayers.

Public service employee expenses and superannuation were expected to cost $27.36 billion next year, about 47 per cent of total expenses, according to the budget.

That was expected to increase to $30.25 billion by 2021-22.

LNP leader Deb Frecklington said Labor's public sector hiring spree was "out of control".

The March quarter public sector workforce report shows there was an increase of 4300 full-time equivalent employees in three months, an increase of 1.96 per cent.

The Health Department had a net increase of 2737 full time employees, or 3.25 per cent, while Education had a net increase of 1649.

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But Together union secretary Alex Scott said the public sector workforce profile reports were misleading because they did not include labour hire employees or take into account seasonal changes.

"The 4000 figure isn't a real figure - it needs to be a March on March comparison rather than a December to March figure," he said.

"No one is employed [at schools] over the Christmas break ... School cleaners, teacher aides."

The KPMG report said government agencies were often "siloed" in their operations and very few policies existed to encourage collaboration.

It also reported on the increases in employees in various departments and outcomes for Queenslanders, such as public hospital wait times.

But KPMG said it was challenging to draw meaningful insight about performance from direct correlation analysis alone due to the complexity of service delivery and the influence of external forces.

"For example, improved health outcomes are unlikely to be driven only by the number of nurses or doctors employed, but are also a result of a number of external influences, such as individual behavioural and lifestyle factors, socio-economic status and bio-medical and genetic factors," the report reads.

The government has announced former QUT vice-chancellor Peter Coaldrake will examine how data on public services employees is collected to ensure decisions about how services are provided are made with the best information.

Felicity Caldwell is state political reporter at the Brisbane Times

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