UNIONS and the state government are at the barricades over the budget and job losses. The budget debate has now become open warfare with stoppages and school closures. The Examiner invited the government and unions to put their case.
By PETER GUTWEIN
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UNLIKE the previous Labor Green government, we know that you can't run the business of government off a credit card.
Unfortunately, union leaders have put their own interest ahead of the interest of Tasmanians.
Union leaders have put politics and a pay rise, ahead of a pay freeze.
Australian Education Union leader Terry Polglase has shown that he was never serious about a pay freeze.
It's reported that Mr Polglase said their so-called pay freeze "offer" was contingent upon the Industrial Commission to decide how big the public service is, rather than the government that employs them and is responsible for determining what public servants do when they're at work in the first place.
It's the government that is responsible for managing its workforce, setting the agenda and delivering it and that's exactly what we are determined to do. We are determined to get the budget back on track and we are determined to deliver on our long-term plan for Tasmania.
It's worth pointing out that for all of union claims they support a pay freeze, it was Mr Polglase who is on the record stating that a pay freeze is "insulting", a "despicable act" and "we will not accept this …"(this was reported in The Examiner, August 29, 2014).
The government is getting on with the job of fixing the budget mess. We won't be held to ransom by the unions, and we certainly won't outsource our responsibility to fix the budget to the Tasmanian Industrial Commission.
Union leaders and Labor and the Greens need to face reality. Labor and the Green's left the budget in a mess.
We need to fix Tasmania's finances now so we don't need to make harsher cuts in future.
Fixing the budget mess is no easy task. Labor and the Greens left $1.1 billion in cumulative deficits, net debt rising to more than $400 million and 1000 embedded job cuts in the budget.
They also raided the superannuation provision account, leaving a $5.5 billion unfunded superannuation liability, and on their watch public sector wages have blown out by $162 million - millions more than forecast.
Labor left the budget in a mess and even with strong fiscal discipline this year the deficit will be nearly $300 million.
We can't keep living off the credit card and leave the bill for future generations to pick up.
We have a plan and our plan is the budget - which included a pay freeze providing around $178 million in savings.
After months of Labor, the Greens and the unions campaigning against the pay freeze, it is now off the table and the caravan has moved on. We made that clear more than two weeks ago.
We wanted to save as many jobs as possible but the unions, encouraged and supported by Labor and the Greens, thwarted every attempt to do so.
The unions and Labor chose a pay rise over saving jobs and any additional job losses are on their heads.
We were elected to fix the budget mess and we will so that Tasmanians can receive the essential services they need into the future.
■ Peter Gutwein is Tasmanian Treasurer.
By TOM LYNCH
THE stopwork meetings by public sector unions yesterday were historic.
Union members aren't chasing higher wages or better conditions - they're taking action to force the government to freeze their wages to protect jobs and the services Tasmanians rely on.
The government has run a long and deceitful campaign to blame public sector workers and their unions for the massive cuts being rolled out.
But it was the government that withdrew its wage freeze legislation from the Legislative Council.
It was the government that rejected wage freeze proposals put forward by its workforce and another recommended by the Tasmanian Industrial Commission.
It was the government that decided to make $400 million in election commitments in March despite knowing the budget couldn't handle it, and it's the government that decided to cut jobs in the public sector to pay for its profligate election spending.
Despite this, public sector workers won't give up on saving jobs and protecting services.
At the stopwork meetings union members were asked to endorse the TIC recommendation that imposes a 12-month wage freeze on two conditions: that the government guarantees all savings delivered through this wage freeze are used to reduce the number of jobs cut from public services and that the wage freeze is implemented through the TIC and not through legislation.
The Hodgman government's slash and burn strategy is doomed to failure.
Workforce demographer Lisa Denny estimates almost 7500 public sector workers will retire in the current term of government - around 30 per cent of the workforce.
Instead of paying people incentives to leave we should be planning the workforce we'll need to deliver services over the next 20 years and working out how we can fill those jobs.
Retirements will reduce the overall size but if we don't understand our future needs and plan to develop workers with the necessary skills, this costly downsizing will soon be replaced by costly recruitment.
Public sector workers are committed to a root-and-branch review.
To have an efficient, effective and affordable public sector we must know what services people want and where and how they expect them to be delivered.
A review of this kind would be welcomed by the Legislative Council, Labor and the Greens, and even the business lobby has offered some support.
The only voice against such a review is coming from the government because it knows how stupid it looks making massive cuts to the public sector before knowing its future workforce needs.
Around 1000 Tasmanian families are facing a bleak Christmas as they learn they've lost an income, but this is entirely unnecessary.
The government should accept the wage freeze offer put to it by its workforce and defer job cuts until an inclusive, community-driven review of the public sector is done.
The review outcome can then form a long-term plan to achieve a public sector that's the right size, has the right skills and provides the right services for Tasmanians.
■Tom Lynch is general secretary of the Community and Public Sector Union.