To date, the Newman Government has made 14,000 public sector redundancies and cut community funding and training programs.
by John Battams
President of the Queensland Council of Unions
QUEENSLAND is currently at the centre of a seismic shift in how governments treat public sector workers and how they deliver services.
On 24 March 2012 the Queensland state election resulted in a landslide victory for Campbell Newman and the Liberal National Party.
Almost immediately the Newman Government declared a “financial crisis” and commissioned former federal Treasurer Peter Costello to produce a now-discredited review of the state’s finances.
The first phase of the Costello Review, unsurprisingly, recommended a major attack on public sector spending to alleviate the debt crisis that Queensland was said to be facing. Further cuts and privatisations are mooted in Costello’s final report.
Costello’s sham review conveniently afforded Newman an excuse to break sincere promises made before the election. Pre-election he pledged public servants had “nothing to fear” from a Newman government. Post-election he announced Queensland had “20,000 too many public servants ” and he would need a “pooper scooper” to clean up.
Pre-election he promised to seek an electoral mandate before privatisations and asset sales. Post-election outsourcing of government services continues apace.
To date the LNP has announced 14,000 public sector redundancies, cuts to community funding and training programs, and removal of job security for public servants. Aged care homes and hospitals are being closed or plumped for sale. With no upper house to dilute any legislative excess, the LNP has used its huge majority to simply trample any opposing voice in Parliament.
Queensland’s union movement is responding to the unprecedented attack served up to public sector workers and services.
A combined union campaign – Stand for Queensland – is standing up against the Newman government.
Union delegates from across Queensland participated in a ground-breaking statewide webcast in August 2012, resolving to fight the Newman government’s agenda to slash jobs and services. Days later, thousands of community members and workers joined together in protest events around the state.
Action continues through numerous community rallies and events, an online campaign to protect and preserve workers’ compensation, legal action against legislation stripping away working rights, as well as submissions to Senate inquiries into industrial relations.
This concerted campaign has impacted on the electoral rating of Newman’s LNP government, with the Premier’s approval rating freefalling to just 38% within months.
This plunge in support corresponds to the state’s unemployment rate, which jumped to more than 6% in the first few months of LNP rule, and has stubbornly remained mainland Australia’s highest jobless rate ever since.
Disturbingly, Newman’s LNP menu of redundancies, service cuts, privatisations and cuts to working rights is the entrée for the main meal Tony Abbott is preparing for the rest of Australia.
He’s salivating at the thought of Newman’s blueprint. In August 2012 he commended Newman’s job cuts and admitted to plans for a “slimmer” federal public sector if he were elected.
It’s clear Queensland is pivotal to September’s federal election, with more than a dozen seats open to change hands.
The ACTU, working with the Queensland Council of Unions and state affiliates, has been active in identifying issues that will resonate with union members and voters in these seats.
There will be much hard work in the coming months to connect Tony Abbott’s ‘vision’ for Australia to the chaotic Newman agenda currently destroying jobs and services in Queensland.
TAKE ACTION: if you're in Queensland, you can show your support for public services and the people who provide them at rallies today. Go here for details.
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