Full Breakdown
Zoos Victoria Redundancy Plan Sparks Safety Fears
By Drooid · · How we work
Restructuring Plan and Workforce Impact
Zoos Victoria announced a restructuring that will cut 54 full-time equivalent roles—about 5 percent of its staff—to achieve $7.7 million in savings. More than 90 chief wardens and designated firearms officers are employed across the organisation, and roughly half of those positions are slated for removal. The cuts will leave Melbourne Zoo with four of its original 12 chief wardens, Werribee with 13 of 28, and Healesville with six of 16. The restructuring is scheduled to take effect on October 19.
Safety Concerns Over Emergency Personnel
Staff fear that the reduced number of armed and emergency officers will compromise safety at “category one” sites that house potentially deadly animals. An anonymous employee reported that only two people are currently covering 60 percent of chief-warden shifts at Melbourne Zoo, raising burnout risks. Past incidents cited include the 2019 orangutan escape at Melbourne Zoo and historic shootings of an escaped rhesus monkey and a polar bear in the 1950s. Workers described psychosocial hazards, saying they have been crying while working alongside dangerous animals.
Official Response
A Zoos Victoria spokeswoman said the redundancies will result in a “modest adjustment” to firearm-response personnel and that training, upskilling and workforce planning will redistribute responsibilities across newly created roles, ensuring continued safe management of the sites. WorkSafe Victoria issued an improvement notice on August 13, noting that despite more than two dozen measures intended to help staff, there was no evidence that additional support had been offered to those still struggling, and that organisation-wide change-management controls had not been reviewed.
Criticism & Opposition
Jiselle Hanna, Victorian branch secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union, warned that the loss of emergency staff creates a deficit in responding to incidents and that the organisation has not explained how it will keep staff and visitors safe. The union also called public posters urging petitions against the cuts “ill-conceived and far-reaching”.
Verbatim Quotes
- “This creates a deficit of staff who can respond effectively if an emergency occurs, and we have no information about how quickly Zoos Victoria can find and train staff who are willing to take on this work,” — Jiselle Hanna, Victorian branch secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union