The WA Government has asked public servants to stop leaking information about potential cuts to services.

WA Treasurer Mike Nahan has been frustrated by a series of leaks that have forced the government to publicly reject suggestions of cuts.

He says the government was not even considering them too seriously.

The most recent leak said the board of the WA State Library was considering stopping all services it provides to 232 public libraries.

“Someone did flag some major reductions in the budget to the libraries,” he said.

“We as a Government ruled it out completely.

“It was an issue, I think, of the senior people trying to suggest drastic changes, leak to the press as a fait accompli, I simply reject that approach to Government.

“The process has been that certain people put up proposals that were impossible.

“Government's looked at them, maybe considered them, and then they were leaked out to the media.

“That was a mechanism to attempt to stop us from undertaking efficiencies. We reject that.

“I just ask the public servants to cooperate with that rather than play political games,” Dr Nahan said.

But the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) says Dr Nahan is trying to gag staff.

“Firstly there's no evidence that public servants have been doing that and secondly, people ought to be consulted about the impact of these cuts,” CPSU WA president Toni Walkington told the ABC.

“It's simply not good enough for the Treasurer to tell agencies to be responsible for cuts, but not give them the authority to be talking with the stakeholders, and the client groups, and the people who will be affected by these cuts.

“We say agencies ought to be able to discuss these matters, and that it is wrong for the Government to gag people from doing that.”