Tuesday 3 July 2012

Unions Blame Newman, I Again Blame Unions

Newman happy with himself, 100 days in. From The Australian

 Queensland Premier Campbell Newman says he feels bad for public service workers who have lost their jobs in the first 100 days of his government. BUT Mr Newman says he had no choice but to cut public service labour costs by shedding workers on temporary contracts.

"My heart goes out to those who are losing their jobs because we can't afford to keep them. What I'm trying hard to do though is keep permanent jobs safe," he told the ABC.

Tuesday marks 100 days since Mr Newman swept to power in a landslide victory. He says his proudest achievement so far is acting on promises to drive down cost of living pressures on Queensland families.

But on his biggest disappointment, he was less forthcoming. "There's been a few. I'm not really sure, yeah. But I've been very happy with the way it's gone." Mr Newman has spent the first months of his premiership telling Queenslanders about the enormous debt the state is in after years of mismanagement by Labor.

An interim audit of the state's books by former federal treasurer Peter Costello has warned debt will balloon to $100 billion by 2018/19 without radical action.

Mr Newman says the task of reining in debt is his primary focus. (Full Story)

The unions are complaining about Newman’s proposed cuts but have no right to complain, they stood by in support of the ALP while the ALP was creating the economic disaster that makes these cuts necessary.

Queensland went from low debt to the largest state debt in Australia. Anna Bligh borrowed billions and squandered the money.

Surprisingly this, along with the farcical electricity market privatisation, didn’t spell the end for her government, she was voted back in while keeping her real plans vague. Once re-elected she then proceeded to push the cost of living up for Queenslanders by turning services into revenue raising operations and selling off assets.

The unions announced they were against the sales but supported the Anna Bligh government.

That means they support the sales and any subsequent job losses. The unions were doing an act of saying one thing but doing something else.

If unions are really for the workers they should have spoken out when the groundwork for the current cuts was being put in place but I think the magic words ‘safe ALP seat’ may have been bandied about.

These kinds of shenanigans could spell the end of the union movement in Australia. By not being there for their members, turning their attention to issues outside the workplace, throwing union members money at these issues and also supporting the so called Labor Party could be what destroys the unions.

The ALP aren’t even bothering to hide they aren’t there for the workers anymore. Would you as a worker join a union that stands by while the economic disasters that will cost you your job are created?

The ALP needs to look out because no unions means a lot less money will be flowing into ALP election campaigns.

Maybe the ALP have realised that their party is toxic to voters and are just simply taking what they can get before their party is completely wiped out.

In any case the unions only have themselves to blame for the job losses, not Campbell Newman, he’s doing what he has to do to get Queensland back on track.

 Thanks to the ALP Queensland’s debt was increasing as they kept borrowing and thanks to union silence on the matter massive cuts are to be made and have to be made.

While the ALP was taking a prosperous state and destroying it the union management was not looking out for anything but its member’s interests. They have failed their members and failed the people of Queensland.

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