Qld Government proves again it’s run by unions and lacks fiscal responsibility: Peter Gleeson

The Queensland Government signing off on pay rises of up to 50 per cent for some of the state’s public servants is obscene and a damning indictment of how this government has no shame in pandering to the unions, writes Peter Gleeson.

NOBODY could ever begrudge Queensland wanting the very best medical practitioners working in our public health system.

But as Australia officially went into recession yesterday off the back of the coronavirus pandemic, it is obscene to think some public servants are right now in line for 50 per cent salary package increases.

By all means bring the salaries of medical physicists into line with other states like NSW, Victoria and South Australia. It is important we attract and retain the best medical professionals to our health system.

Peter Gleeson says Health Minister Steven Miles needed to stare down the Together Union and not fold to their demands for “obscene” pay rises for the state’s medical specialists.

But now? When millions of Australians are in the dole queue because of the ravages of COVID-19, the Queensland Government has signed off on pay rises of up to 50 per cent for these people.

They’ve dressed it up as a retention strategy.

That means they will get between $39k and $68k on top of their current six figure salaries.

Surely this could be handled differently.

What this story reaffirms is the narrative that the Palaszczuk Government is run by the unions and that it has no idea about fiscal responsibility.

It’s why we need a budget handed down soon. What the Together Union wants, it gets. This is a union prepared to ride roughshod over community sentiment and use industrial action to get its own way during a pandemic.

No wonder fair-minded Aussies are leaving the union movement in droves. It’s all take and no give.

At a time when so many Queenslanders are out of work and unable to even pay their mortgage, the Together Union, under its boss Alex Scott, wants to push through pay rises that are above the national median wage.

Talk about living in an alternate reality. If Health Minister Steven Miles was fair dinkum, he’d stare down the union and say we’ll phase this new EBA for medical physicists in over five years.

It’s obscene and a damning indictment of how this government has no shame in pandering to the unions.

We deserve so much better.