225 Murray St, Hobart, TAS 7000 Phone: (03) 6234 6397  

hobart@socialist-alliance.org

Socialist Alliance expresses outrage over the state government budget, calls for a socially just alternative.

24 June 2011

Socialist Alliance members were outraged by the harsh neo-liberal budget handed down by the Tasmanian Labor-Greens government on June 16.

The budget slashes a total of $1.4 billion from the public sector over the next four years, including a $100 million cut to health within the next financial year and the closing of 20 schools. Up to 1700 full-time equivalent jobs will be scrapped, including 100 police jobs. The 5 per cent cap on water price rises was increased to 10 per cent, meaning price rises of up to $100 per quarter for households.

Public sector workers will have their pay rises capped at 2 per cent a year, with the possibility of an extra 0.5 per cent through productivity improvements, still well below rising inflation and cost of living increases.

The government has also passed laws to make it easier to sack public servants by limiting the redeployment period from twelve to six months. Both Labor and the Greens gave a public commitment before the last state elections that they would not sack public sector workers.

We are shocked and disappointed that Greens MPs are supporting and actively implementing this agenda. Greens leader and MP Nick McKim said in a media release: “The Greens welcome the move to a new fiscal strategy… [it’s] a welcome change of position from Labor.” He said that they have “rolled up their sleeves” to take “tough remedial budget action” and they won’t “shirk from this responsibility”. As Education Minister, McKim is now leading the charge to close down 20 public sector schools.

 “This Labor-Green government has got its priorities all wrong”, said Shaine Stephen, spokesperson for the Socialist Alliance. “The government is punishing ordinary people by slashing into the services we really need. Nobody believes that you can axe millions of dollars and over a thousand jobs from health, education, police and other services without leading to poorer services.”  

The Socialist Alliance pledges to stand side-by-side with the communities that are fighting for the survival of their schools.

“The fact that savings from 20 school closures have already been included in the budget suggests that McKim’s pledge to visit those schools and consult with them doesn’t mean much”, Mr Stephen said. “We understand that in some rural areas and tight-knit communities, schools can be the lifeblood and the centre of those communities. Closing them down, against the wishes of teachers, parents and students, could devastate those communities and seriously impair those children’s education. It’s also bad for the health of families and the environment because instead of parents being able to walk their children to school, children will need to travel long distances by road.” 

Socialist Alliance also pledges to assist public sector workers and their unions in their fight to protect jobs and services. Rose Matthews, Co-Convener of Hobart Socialist Alliance, said: “We have members working in mental health, acute health, education and child protection and they are saying loud and clear that these services are already struggling. They also worry that the workers left behind won’t be able to deal with the stress of increasing workloads when jobs are cut.”

Ms Matthews continued: “Some people think of the public sector as being full of over-paid department heads and paper-pushing bureaucrats but actually research by Anglicare shows that the increase in public sector job numbers in recent years has been mainly through more dentists, doctors, teachers, ambulance officers, allied health professionals and nurses. We know that grassroots workers will be the ones to face the sack, not the top-levels of the bureaucracy.” 

Socialist Alliance also believes that these actions will be bad for the economy. Many economists, including authors of the report by the University of Newcastle’s Centre of Full Employment and Equity commissioned by the unions, say that these cuts will have a negative flow-on effect into the private sector and raise unemployment. Governments need to stimulate the economy by maintaining a strong public sector and investing in jobs, especially in times of economic crisis.

Yet Premier Lara Giddings is too eager to listen to its ex-TCII (Tasmanian Chamber of Commerce and Industry) economist who she recruited to be her senior advisor. Roz Madsen from Unions Tasmania pointed out that last year, the state government cut land tax, payroll tax and tax on betting exchanges which led to a reduction of $185 million in government income. The government has also spent taxpayers’ money on propping up Gunns and other favored businesses, with no public benefit.

The Socialist Alliance advocates an alternative approach that protects services and boosts the economy. We call on the government to:

-          End subsidies to Gunns and other private companies (especially when there are no guarantees of long-term jobs)

-          Increase corporate payroll tax

-          Reverse land tax cuts

-          Increase mining royalties significantly from the meager rate of 5.5%

-          Reduce the frivolous budget spent on maintaining a full-time governor and Governor House

-          Reform forestry – cancel native forest logging permits to big companies like Gunns without compensation and instead seek to maximize the carbon storage and tourism value of our forests while supporting a transition for workers into a small-scale value-adding timber industry.

-          Charge market rates to the three big corporate electricity users instead of selling our electricity to them at below-cost

-          Tax the excess gaming profits made by Federal Hotels (which according to Greg James on Tasmanian Times, amounts to $225 million per annum)

-          Take action to recoup the $721,000 owed to the government by the Walker Corporation for planning costs associated with their failed Ralph’s Bay marina application

-          Return water and sewerage to council control

-          Reduce parliamentary and top-bureaucrat perks, privileges, superannuation and wages

-          Invest in rail, renewable energy, national parks and public housing, going into debt in the short-term if necessary, in order to stimulate jobs and the economy

-          Boost grassroots professional jobs in essential services like health, mental health, education, child protection, ambulance services etc to meet the needs of all Tasmanians 

For more info:  Shaine Stephen: 0422 849 641   

Rose Matthews: 0407 550 805

PUBLICSERVICES@WORK Response

Here is the Socialist Alliance response to the Community & Public Sector Union's (CPSU SPSF Tas) campaign called PublicServices@Work which asked ALL candidates for their response regarding how they will support the Tasmanian Public Service. This was signed by Jenny Forward Socialist Alliance Candidate for Franklin and current delegate for the CPSU (SPSF TAS)and Melanie Barnes Socialist Alliance Candidate for Denison. For more info see it online at http://www.abettertasmania.com/


Dear Tom

Firstly we would like to congratulate the CPSU on organising the Better Tasmania campaign that highlights the important role of the public service as well as asking candidates to outline their commitment to your document Public Services @ Work: Tasmanian Public Sector Policy. Furthermore we would like to congratulate the CPSU on providing ALL candidates with an opportunity to respond to your proposed policy and not just the major parties.
I am happy to inform you that Socialist Alliance fully supports the principals outlined in the Public Services @ Work: Tasmanian Public Sector Policy. We believe in ensuring fairness, security, innovation and governance in Tasmania public services.
We have always supported the salary nexus that would provide workers with pay parity with workers in the rest of Australia. We therefore have supported unions including the CPSU and their members in the Tasmanian Public Service who have been courageously fighting for pay parity despite the State Labor Governments opposition to it over the years. We will continue to support unions and workers who oppose wage agreements that renege on keeping the salary nexus. We were also opposed to the Labor Governments' proposal to try to slash about 800 public service jobs due to the global financial crisis and we were opposed to their axing of the entire Department of Environment, Parks, Heritage and the Arts.
Community mental health services are also struggling as they are staffed well below the benchmark when it comes to both allied health and nursing mental health professionals. The Bartlett Government has released glossy papers on Mental Health Promotion and Early Intervention yet people with acute mental illness and complex co-morbidities sit on waitlists. Grassroots mental health clinical staff would like to extend their services to do early intervention and health promotion activities but because of the chronic understaffing, they end up having to spend all their time responding to those in crisis. Also the hospital psychiatric ward in the Royal Hobart Hospital absolutely needs at least one more social worker, psychologist and occupational therapist to be able to provide real multi-disciplinary treatment to the large numbers of patients.
Health workers play a crucial part in providing public services to Tasmanians yet a Mercury article dated January 29, 2010 stated that a national Report on Government Services reveals that "Tasmania had a lower rate of public hospital doctors and nurses than the Australian average". Socialist Alliance therefore supports an increase in the number of hospital doctors and nurses and this would have a positive impact on services and on the elective surgery waiting lists.

Socialist Alliance therefore believes that the Bartlett Labor Government is not committed to fairness and guaranteed services as they state in their comments regarding your public sector policy. We are also concerned with their apparent push to de-professionalise many areas of the public service which we consider to be a threat to the quality of services to meet the needs of the Tasmanian public.
Socialist Alliance would properly fund all health services to ensure that Tasmanians receive the quality care they deserve. However Socialist Alliance also believes that the public sector should be extended to cover all those economic sectors where public provision would be cheaper, more efficient or provide equality of access. Our belief is that energy and water utilities, postal and telecommunications services, financial institutions, airports and airlines, shipping, railways, the extraction and sale of natural resources, public housing, transport, prison facilities, aged care, child care and health care services should be publicly owned. We also believe that drug development and production should be entrusted to a state pharmaceutical firm; and there should a state superannuation fund, eliminating the risk of workers losing their savings.
For the past two decades both the Labor and the Liberal party have lied to us claiming privatisation would provide cheaper and better health and education along with more affordable and efficient transport, housing and communication and care for our children and elderly. This period has shown us that this is not the way privatisation works and instead and it has forced bills up, jobs down and created a larger division between the rich and poor.
Instead Socialist Alliance supports the rebuilding of our public sector, one that is very well funded and encompassing latest technologies with boards comprising workers, consumers and administrators to ensure accountable, transparent and democratic management. This would provide a system where the government would be directly accountable to the people and would deliver a system of quality, efficiency and duty of care.
Furthermore we propose an alternative to the privatisation of public assets and resources and call for the nationalisation of Gunns Ltd to put these resources in public hands and make the government accountable for their practices.
Another public asset that demonstrates the dangers of privatisation is the Tasmanian rail system. We want to avoid another disaster after it was sold off and then bought back in worse condition. We need to massively expand the rail workforce so that we can provide quality and publicly owned rail services in Tasmania. Unlike the Liberals, Socialist Alliance does not want to expand the Midlands Highway but instead we support the introduction of fast speed trains between Hobart and Launceston as these are a safer and more environmentally friendly alternative.

While we agree with the policy on consultation when any major changes are put on the table, we would argue that unions, as workers’ representatives, need to be involved from the start and major changes to the public sector would need union approval.
To conclude Socialist Alliance has a proud and long history of supporting worker’s rights and struggles both in Tasmania and at a National level and we will continue to do so. The Tasmanian Public Service needs more support to enable it to better meet the sometimes complex needs of the people of Tasmania.
Please don’t hesitate to contact us if you require any further clarification.

Kind regards


Jenny Forward
Socialist Alliance Candidate for Franklin
Current CPSU Delegate


Mel Barnes
Socialist Alliance Candidate for Denison

Emailed 26/2/10