The Liberal Government had a very clear strategy to save 500 public service jobs through a wage freeze.
I believe our wage freeze had the support of the community and the support of many public servants themselves.
We were very disappointed that Unions, Labor and the Greens campaigned against our strategy to save 500 jobs.
Today’s media report in the Mercury, that Unions Tasmania have had a “road to Damascus” moment and are now willing to support the pay freeze, despite campaigning against one for three months, is encouraging.
The Government has been very clear though that we will not negotiate when it comes to the budget bottom line as we need to achieve savings of $50 million per year and we are determined to fix the budget mess.
Our pay freeze proposal to save 500 jobs is something the unions and Labor have campaigned against. But hopefully unions are now seeing common sense and realise their membership would prefer a pause than 500 extra job cuts.
Peter Gutwein, Treasurer
