Only a fair pay rise will let us hire more staff

Government wages policy is already paying for frontline workers, says Peter Gutwein

ALL governments are faced with choices. The Hodgman Liberal Government is no different.

The Government has a limited budget. It can give pay rises above its wages policy, or it can hire more staff to deliver the frontline services our growing state needs.

The Government believes it has the balance right, with a guaranteed and fair pay rise of 6 per cent over three years, while addressing workload concerns by hiring more workers. This approach is working. Since coming to government in March 2014, our wages policy has enabled the hiring of more than 500 nurses, 142 teachers, 193 teacher assistants, 100 doctors, 50 ambulance officers and 113 police.

At the election in March, Tasmanians endorsed our plans to hire even more over the next four years, including 478 full-time equivalent health and hospital staff, 120 more nursing graduates, 42 regional paramedics, 192 teachers and 80 teacher assistants, 125 more police, more child protection officers and more rangers.

Our fair and affordable wages policy makes this possible. While 1 per cent sounds small, it would cost $28 million in the first year and, because it accumulates, $280 million over four years.

This would make it more difficult to employ the hundreds of staff already committed in the budget. A 1 per cent pay rise won’t hire a single teacher, nurse, support worker or doctor.

The message from the Australian Education Union and teachers after weeks of meetings and commentary has been that teacher demands are principally about workloads, not pay. The Government’s offer reduced the instructional workload for primary teachers from 22 to a nation-leading 20 hours a week. It included an extra 95 specialist teachers to deliver STEM, maths, music, art or PE, and is on top of our election commitment to hire 250 more teachers.

Despite this, the AEU rejected it. So what does the AEU want? Instead of a counter offer, it took industrial action disrupting education of thousands of children.

Last week, demonstrating we are listening to key concerns raised by unions, we made an offer that represents the biggest improvement to conditions in over a decade.

It delivers family benefits, including increases to paid parental leave, paid partner leave and superannuation payments on unpaid leave to help narrow the superannuation gender gap and improve retirement savings for women who take time out to raise a family.

The offer addresses the overuse of fixed-term employment, rectifying an issue that unions, particularly health and education, have been calling for for years. It includes a Youth Employment Program to attract the best and brightest Year 12 leavers to the state service.

The unions said they would consider the offer and take it to members, while threatening industrial action. Such tactics are outdated and not good faith bargaining. The unions should provide all members the opportunity to consider the offer before announcing intentions to further disrupt our community.

It is clear our wages policy is comfortably meeting costof- living increases. Since we were elected, it has delivered pay rises in excess of inflation, which has grown, on average, just 1.7 per cent annually.

The 2 per cent policy is a minimum — because many receive additional pay increments, bringing their pay rises to 3 to 7 per cent a year.

Tasmania has a dedicated and professional public service. It is not the lowest paid in the nation, especially considering employment security, allowances and leave provisions. The Government has to choose between more frontline staff and fair pay rises, or unaffordable pay rises to existing staff. We believe we have the balance right for the benefit of every Tasmanian.