Treasurer concedes wage freeze changes

Mr Gutwein is cautiously optimistic the changes will win over the support of MLCs, who are today deciding whether to reject the legislation outright or carry it through to consider amendments.

Mr Gutwein has indicated to MLCs he will be open to a series of significant changes to the bill, which include:

• ''Trading off'' a halt on pay incremental increases in return for extending the overarching wage freeze from 12 to 18 months.
• Capturing statutory officers including the DPP, magistrates, judges, the Solicitor and Auditor Generals and the Governor in the wage freeze.
• Adding a sunset clause to pull the pin on the pay freeze after a maximum of four years.

Pay increases would still be limited to 2 per cent following the freeze.

The suggestions were yesterday brought forward by Independent MLCs Tony Mulder, Greg Hall and Ivan Dean.

Early indications are that the legislation is still on rocky ground with Independent Tania Rattray rejecting it, for now.

''I completely understand why the government need to implement a pay pause,'' Ms Rattray said.

''Do I support it? Yes I do. Do I support it this way? No I don't. I do not support the principle of interfering with pays.''

Ms Rattray urged the government to negotiate the pay pause, not legislate it.

But Ms Rattray said after one month's negotiations, she would reluctantly vote with the government to legislate the wage freeze if negotiations failed.

Opposition parties are labelling the move ''yet another Liberal Government backflip'', after it announced plans earlier this week to dramatically reduce the scope of its controversial anti-protest laws.

Mr Gutwein's concessions followed a full day of briefings on the wage freeze bill, which was near-universally denounced.

Pay freeze bill would 'destroy' tribunal

THE government's proposed public sector wage freeze will "effectively destroy" the Tasmanian Industrial Commission, its president has told MLCs.

TIC president Tim Abey gave evidence yesterday at an upper house briefing on the bill.

As it stands, the legislation seeks to freeze public servant wages and pay band progression for 12 months, and cap annual increases at 2 per cent.

Mr Abey told MLCs his primary concern was not with the pause on pay and increments, but provisions in the bill which allow the government to "unilaterally determine" salary increases indefinitely once the freeze expires.

He said the measure would "strike at the heart" of the independent tribunal and decimate public confidence in the state's collective bargaining system.

"The industrial commission might have a future physically but its effectiveness would be extremely limited," Mr Abey said.

"There'd probably still be work to do but what would be lost would be the public confidence in the impartiality of it."

Treasurer Peter Gutwein told MLCs the changes did not spell the end to collective bargaining, with all terms and conditions other than salary increases to still be open to negotiation.

Mr Gutwein added there would be no surprises with future wage increases, saying the government's policy position was "crystal clear".

"We will not bring in regulations that are going to decrease below the policy intent of the bill, and that is two per cent," Mr Gutwein said.

"What we've allowed for in the bill is to increase by above two per cent should the economic and fiscal outlook improve."

Community and Public Sector Union secretary Tom Lynch said the Treasurer's policy promise must be enshrined in legislation.

"If you're giving those verbal commitments - if you're saying the only way you will use that regulation is to increase above the two per cent cap - put it in the bill," Mr Lynch said.

Mr Abey told MLCs it would be far better to negotiate a pay freeze with workers than legislate one - an argument later echoed by a range of union representatives and the International Labor Organisation's Greg Vines.

Wages pause 'may lead to exodus of medical staff'

DOCTORS have warned of a mass exodus of medical staff from Tasmania if a 12-month public sector pay freeze is legislated.

Australian Medical Association state president Tim Greenaway told MLCs yesterday Tasmanian health workers were already the worst paid in the country, making it incredibly challenging to attract and retain quality staff.

"If there is a wages pause . . . there will be even less incentive to work in the public system," Dr Greenaway said.

"Doctors will leave . . . they are already leaving."

Legislative Councillors were told that salaried doctors had already endured a three-year wage freeze amid an ongoing industrial dispute.

Dr Greenaway said most doctors had copped the decision because it was determined by the Tasmanian Industrial Commission, but would not accept a freeze as a result of legislation.

"We have had a commitment from doctors that they will abide by the umpire's decision," he said.

"But to now have the government say 'we don't care about the independent umpire, we are going to take our bat and ball and go home,' is going to cause absolute chaos."

He warned if the pay freeze was adopted "all bets would be off"'.

Dr Greenaway told MLCs the government had already spent more than $30 million on locums between 2012 and 2014 to make up for a shortfall in skilled doctors.

He said the reliance on locums would surge to unsustainable levels if the wage freeze passed into law.

Legislative Councillors are today cracking on with debate on the proposed pay freeze.

Mr Gutwein said any outcome was still ''line ball''.

''The upper house will be making a decision today and I'm taking nothing for granted,'' he said.