“People are easy to, you know, people easily dismiss the public sector but in Queensland at least, and I’m sure it’s probably very similar in New South Wales, it is the largest employer. And people without jobs are not going to restaurants. They’re not buying as much petrol. They’re not, you know, going on holidays. They’re not buying clothes. They’re not consuming in the economy.
“And if you’re trying to get the economy up and running and out of a sluggish period then these sorts of things, I think, will have just a terrible human impact. Unemployment is a terrible scourge.”
That was vanquished Queensland premier Anna Bligh on ABC Radio’s Sunday Profile yesterday. She would say that, wouldn’t she? But the point is well made.
According to one understandably anonymous contributor to Crikey‘s Tips and Rumours column today, some public sector workers facing the chop have been put on a kind of suicide watch by some of their colleagues. A terrible scourge, indeed.
The purge of bureaucrats is, perhaps, unprecedented. Thousands of jobs have gone; another 2750 from Queensland Health last Friday, a portfolio of particular sensitivity given the reform undertaken following the Jayant Patel scandal in 2005.
Campbell Newman had a thumping, great big mandate to do with what he chose in a state that wasn’t exactly on firm economic footing. But nobody expected the savagery of these cuts.
Economists doubt the dire outlook painted by Newman, and voters are telling him he’s gone too far. If he can pump up the economy he might get away with it. But if the austerity in front-line services such as health and education begins to bite families — and enough unemployed public servants close their wallets — then the warnings from Bligh and others could prove more dire.
Hmmmm, so where does the money come from to employ these
individuals…The Economy…..Anna Bligh’s comments are ridiculous.
She oversaw the almost bakrupting of this state. A massive expansion in the public
sector for no change in productivity. Why is it only the private sector
that is criticised over the part of the economy. Having more than 15
years of experience dealing with a large state organisation in QLD,
there is close to no accountability in the public sector in the
beauracracy. The only thing scrutinized are the people who actually
do things. The present slash and burn is not being carried out enough
but is also being used to get rid of people who work hard who make
members of the public beauracracy look bad by example.
Bligh’s comments sounds nice and plays well at a superficial level. The problem is that all western economies have created over the last 5 decades a truly massive proportion of their economy that is supported by the taxpayer. Though state owned businesses might deliver wealth through their efforts, the entrenched practice of privatisation by both sides of politics is a recognition that governments are pretty hopeless at running businesses.
The Keynesian idea that spending power of everyone is vital to keep an economy growing is certainly true but as we are seeing in Europe right now, there is a limit to the amount of stimulus government spending can deliver. Public servants are a version of government spending.
Public servants must be paid for by the productive sector. Maybe these retrenched public servants, as well as closing their wallets, will move into the productive, wealth creating side of our economy.
Just wait till Tony gets into power; the Queensland perceived fiscal adventure will seem like childs-play. And, oh yes! Tony will get infallible Pete to review the fiscal status of the nation and because as is expected dire predictions of doom and gloom; as it worked for A E Neumann, Tony and his cohorts will: chop, chop, chop, to health care, education funding; and of course cuts to mining taxes to keep Gina and the man in the hi-visibility vest happy. As requested by Gina wages will go down and it will be illegal to complain, Medibank will be sold off to some American consortium; the major highways will be sold off to roads to toll road operators, and on it goes. The budget will get into surplus – but wait there is more – surpluses will be spent on vote buying as each election comes up only to be taken away following successfully being re-elected – going back to the Golden Howard era. All a bit of a laugh really as it is apparent Australians like being shat on. The Queensland voters showing the way – you get what you vote for. At least QLD, NSW, Vic governments are keeping unemployment down and so will the federal coalition government.
Premier Anna Bligh announced on 12 December 2011 that the department will be dismantled. The decision was attributed to an “unacceptable culture”, the theft of $16 million from the department and problems with the payroll system which has hundreds of millions of dollars. The department will cease operations on 1 July 2012.
Nice work David Hand,
‘Public Servants must be paid for by the productive sector.’
Lovely right wing simplism.
The productive sector must be educated by (in the main) the public sector, it’s health care is provided by the public sector, it’s road, rail, electricity infrastructure (again) public sector funded. Even the fact that the ‘productive sector’ is able to do business in a stable country with laws and courts and a police force to maintain public order which are all functions of the public sector show how simple and stupid it is to continue to pretend that ‘the productive sector does it all by it self.