Page 1865 - Week 06 - Thursday, 5 May 2005
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Productivity is something the minister does not know too much about and does not want to know. As we saw several months back when those agreements were negotiated, it is her view that you hand out wage increases but you must never ask for offsetting advantages to the people in Canberra, to the ACT taxpayer, in terms of more and higher quality services or having those services delivered in a more efficient way.
In the rest of industry and the rest of Australia—and indeed, many of the trade union officials that I know are quite comfortable with the concept—you extend a pay increase but you get productivity gains. The minister is on the record as saying that means lowering people’s standard of living. It is not what I have seen.
I have seen in the hospitality industry meals sometimes picked up by employers on the weekend, or various measures extended to staff. That is something this government does not believe in, because it is not their money they are playing with. Their view is: spend while we are in control—but I suspect that era is going to come to an end in 2008.
As part of the whole process of offering largesse to the union movement, the other part of the equation that is also a foreign word is efficiency. It is not something the minister takes too much notice of. I know the Treasurer struggles—I feel sympathetic towards him because he fights desperately—to keep control of the costs, but the rest of the team say, “Don’t worry about it, Treasurer; we are going to spend—we are going to impose more costs on business.” As the one person over there who has a bit of an appreciation of private sector experience, I imagine he sits there asking, “How on earth are the business people going to stay in this town if we keep creating conditions of employment that make them uncompetitive?”
We are hearing more and more about competition in Australia and the need for us to be world competitive. What do we do? We try and dream up measures that put the ACT business community behind the eight ball. The minister has no idea what these things will cost. They never look at them too closely because they do not want to know what the answers might be.
Ms Gallagher: Well, what are the costs?
MR MULCAHY: The minister cannot deny that wages in the ACT are heavily affected by the ACT government.
Ms Gallagher: Can’t answer it?
MR MULCAHY: I am not sure what the question was.
Ms Gallagher: What are the costs?
MR MULCAHY: I cannot hear you amongst the shouting of your colleagues. The fact of the matter is that, with wages growth in the public sector, if they become pacesetters in conditions and rates of growth, they will in fact hurt the overall ACT economy.
I do not stand here and defend the commonwealth government, because I think they have a bit to account for as well in this territory. My concern is for the people who generate
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