UNIONS have threatened further industrial action and will start lobbying junior Liberal MPs to ramp up pressure on the government to bring back a pay freeze. But Premier Will Hodgman says he won't be held to ransom, and insists the government will push ahead with its planned job cuts. Thousands of public servants attended stopwork meetings around the state yesterday, and vowed to continue to fight against the government's decision to shed 460 jobs before the end of the financial year. Community and Public Sector Union secretary Tom Lynch said the campaign would continue. "There was broad endorsement today for industrial action around the withdrawal of goodwill, if the government ignores the very reasonable request we've put forward," he said. Mr Lynch said unions would also lobby first-term government MPs against the cuts, saying the full effects were yet to be realised. "Schools are only one part of this, people are going to feel it across the board," he said. "We haven't even seen what's going to happen in health yet." But Mr Hodgman insisted the time for negotiations was over. "Do we take responsibility for fixing the budget? Yes we do," he said. "Will we allow them to try and hold us to ransom with a proposal that's going to make the budget worse? No way." The government will shed the equivalent of 460 jobs from the public sector this financial year, following failed attempts to bring in a pay freeze. The cuts come in addition to 361 position cuts announced in the budget. The public service rally hit the lawns of Parliament House yesterday, but the government was also feeling the pressure inside the building. Greens leader Kim Booth moved a no-confidence motion against Mr Hodgman, accusing him of an "appalling mishandling of the budget cuts". "The Premier has failed our teachers, children and parents by failing to intervene and stopping the cut of 266 teachers from our schools," he said. "The Premier has failed to deliver his election promise of no cuts to frontline services." The government used its numbers to defeat the motion.
Australia Education Union members at the public service rally on the lawns of Parliament House yesterday. Picture: Georgie Burgess
UNIONS have threatened further industrial action and will start lobbying junior Liberal MPs to ramp up pressure on the government to bring back a pay freeze.
But Premier Will Hodgman says he won't be held to ransom, and insists the government will push ahead with its planned job cuts.
Thousands of public servants attended stopwork meetings around the state yesterday, and vowed to continue to fight against the government's decision to shed 460 jobs before the end of the financial year.
Community and Public Sector Union secretary Tom Lynch said the campaign would continue.
"There was broad endorsement today for industrial action around the withdrawal of goodwill, if the government ignores the very reasonable request we've put forward," he said.
Mr Lynch said unions would also lobby first-term government MPs against the cuts, saying the full effects were yet to be realised.
"Schools are only one part of this, people are going to feel it across the board," he said.
"We haven't even seen what's going to happen in health yet."
But Mr Hodgman insisted the time for negotiations was over.
"Do we take responsibility for fixing the budget? Yes we do," he said.
"Will we allow them to try and hold us to ransom with a proposal that's going to make the budget worse? No way."
The government will shed the equivalent of 460 jobs from the public sector this financial year, following failed attempts to bring in a pay freeze.
The cuts come in addition to 361 position cuts announced in the budget.
The public service rally hit the lawns of Parliament House yesterday, but the government was also feeling the pressure inside the building.
Greens leader Kim Booth moved a no-confidence motion against Mr Hodgman, accusing him of an "appalling mishandling of the budget cuts".
"The Premier has failed our teachers, children and parents by failing to intervene and stopping the cut of 266 teachers from our schools," he said.
"The Premier has failed to deliver his election promise of no cuts to frontline services."
The government used its numbers to defeat the motion.
