PM asked to stop public sector job cuts

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has shied away from coalition plans to redistribute public sector jobs to regional Australia.

Hobart-based Independent MP Andrew Wilkie on Thursday asked the prime minister if the government had changed tack on its 2014 Abbott government pledge to relocate the jobs outside Canberra.

"Tasmania's economic future is not going to be led by public service engagement, it's going to be led by the economy, economic activity arising from the big opportunities that our national economic plan offers," Mr Turnbull told parliament, adding that the public service had to become more efficient and innovative.