Labor is in trouble with the public over the future of its top-line workforce.
The shadow chief executive of the Australian Human Services Union (AHSU) Michael McGarry said the Coalition government was putting the health of the country at risk by delaying the introduction of a new public health levy, known as the Medicare levy, for health-related services.
“We know that if there is no Medicare levy coming into force by April 2019, it’s going to put a strain on Medicare and on our health system,” Mr McGarry told ABC Radio National’s Today program on Thursday.
“If the Government wants to introduce a new levy, they can’t wait until the end of the year and then just come back to us and say, ‘You know what?
We’re going to do this’.”
If they are going to bring in a new tax that would hit us and our families, we’ve got to be able to put pressure on them and we’ve only got to say, we’re not doing this, and that’s where the public comes in.
“The public service pay debate: What is the public service, what is the Government?
article Mr McGryne said there was a public health imperative for Labor to implement the Medicare Levy, which is set to begin in April 2019.”
The Labor Government has just announced that they are putting the public health of our country at stake,” Mr Mcgryne told ABC Breakfast.”
I’m very concerned about that.
“Mr McGarry added that the Government’s position on Medicare was in question, and had been for years.”
This Government has been at the forefront of pushing the public sector back into the past,” he said.”
They’ve been in the lead with privatisation, they’ve been the leading with deregulation of public services.
“Now, if we have a public sector that’s in crisis, then it’s time to put public services back in the public interest.”
Mr Mcgrieson said he believed the Government would use the public-service pay debate as a chance to re-energise the public servants in the workplace.
“Public servants, they are the backbone of our democracy, they’re the backbone for the public purse, they deserve to be protected, and they’re not being protected at all,” he told Today.
“That’s why they’ve done this so badly in the past.”
Mr McKillop said he would “stand up” for the Public Service Union’s call to “stop the privatisation”.
“We need to stop privatisation and we need to get back to the workforce, we need a public service workforce, because that’s what we have in this country,” he added.
“What’s happened to our workforce over the last 12 months is disgraceful.”
Labor’s shadow chief secretary for employment, Michael Meagher, said he hoped Mr McGary was right and the public would stand up for the “public services” of public servants.
“It’s an absolute travesty that the government would use public servants as political pawns,” Mr Meagher told ABC News Breakfast.
Mr Meagher said Labor would not have had the Medicare debate if Mr McGerry had been elected leader.
“Labor would have been able to have that debate and I think the public is rightly angry at the government over that,” he explained.
“At the moment, Labor has a public-health emergency, which it is putting the country’s health at risk.”
Topics:government-and-politics,public-sector,corporate-governance,labour,employment,business-economics-and ofttimes,government-canberra-2600,labrador-2300First posted May 20, 2019 08:41:16Contact Michelle D’Ambrosio
