Public servant pay rises Qld: Premier will lose election if decision isn’t overturned

If Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk doesn’t knock pay rises for 227,000 public servants on the head, Labor will suffer a 2012-style election rout on October 31 because, if there’s one thing Queenslanders won’t cop it’s being treated like mugs.

IF premier Annastacia Palaszczuk doesn’t knock pay rises for public servants on the head today, Labor will suffer a 2012-style election rout on October 31.

If there’s one thing Queenslanders won’t cop it’s being treated like mugs. Today, we learn the unions are proceeding with talks with the Palaszczuk Government for the state’s 227,000 public servants to get a 2.5 per cent pay rise on July 1.

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Let me repeat that – in the midst of the coronavirus crisis – as millions of Australians are losing their jobs or being forced to take big pay cuts – the Queensland public service is on track to get a 2.5 per cent pay rise.

This is the same public service that has ballooned by an extra 35,000 in the past four years under Labor. This is the same government that has an $85 billion debt and shows no sign of addressing it – even before the coronavirus occurred.

Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk. Picture: (AAP Image/Darren England)

Unless premier Annastacia Palaszczuk knocks this madness on the head immediately, this will be her political suicide note to the voters of Queensland.

People in the regions are already justifiably angry with the way the Labor Government has gone soft on crime, run dead on coal, terrorised farmers with draconian vegetation management laws and upset Christians with their pro-abortion rubbish.

This would be the final straw, a middle finger to every Queenslander who is doing it tough right now – and that would be 90 per cent of the population.

The unions say they will negotiate the new deal with Treasurer Jackie Trad and Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace.

Why wouldn’t they? Trad is from the Left and takes her riding instructions from the unions, while Grace Grace is a former union official before entering parliament.

We all know the unions run Queensland because the government is a wholly owned subsidiary of the unions. The unions fund Labor’s election campaigns. Who do you think picked up the multimillion-dollar advertising bill for unsuccessful Labor lord mayoral hopeful Patrick Condren?

Industrial Relations Minister Grace Grace. Pic Annette Dew

This is how the conversation will go between the union bosses, Trad and Grace.

Union boss – we want 2.5 per cent?

Trad – Done deal.

The art of tough negotiating.

This is outrageous. Palaszczuk has to show leadership on this. How can she stand up in front of people and say we’re all in this together, while at the same time sanctioning pay rises for bloated public servants, many of whom wouldn’t work in an iron lung.

This is disrespectful, dumb politics. It reeks of Labor looking after its mates while the rest of the country experiences fiscal pain that we haven’t seen since the 1930s.

I’m sure the LNP are secretly hoping Labor proceeds with this. If Labor is to have any chance of retaining power on October 31, this pay rise must be abandoned.

If it proceeds, get ready for a landslide like we saw in 2012 when Labor was reduced to just eight MPs.