By Natalie Woodlock
HOBART — The minority Rundle Liberal government's first budget, which advocates deep cuts to public services, has been passed with the support of the Greens. Labor voted against it and pushed for amendments, though stating it would not block supply.
Funding to seven public service departments will be cut by 1.5%. While education funding has been marginally increased, cuts to TAFE will mean job losses and higher fees for students. Land tax is to be phased out over the next two years and payroll tax reduced. Police funding has been boosted by $1.5 million.
Unions have responded angrily. The Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) warned that, in addition to the federal cuts, up to 1000 people would lose their jobs. Apart from redundancies, lump sums of $5000 will be paid to full-time workers who agree to cut their hours by 50%.
Hardest hit will be the health and community services sector, which faces a 4.1% — $29 million — cut. Although exact numbers are not yet known, the Health and Community Services Union predicts that up to 700 jobs could go.
An extra $6 million has been earmarked for 135 new secondary teaching positions. However, the government is refusing to agree to teachers' demand for a 6.86% pay rise.
Robin Hull from the Australian Education Union told Green Left Weekly that though it may look like the education budget has been increased, "We haven't made any great gains. The 135 new teachers only make up a fraction of the 830 we have lost since 1990." Over the last six years, education funding in Tasmania had been cut by over 20%.
Hull said that the TAFE cuts will mean the loss of up to 100 jobs and a 35% increase in fees for students. "The quality of education will suffer, and on top of federal university cutbacks it will further disadvantage people from low socioeconomic backgrounds."
Phillippe Allen, president of Tasmanian Council of Social Service, told Green Left, "The budget doesn't address the fundamental structural economic problems like tax reform and public investment". He said that for 10 years tax cuts for business have been the main policy of both Liberal and Labor state governments. "Yet, we've got higher levels of unemployment, social dislocation and low levels of investment."
Dave Abbott, a trade union activist, told Green Left that while he supported Labor's view that the state debt had to be paid off, it didn't go far enough. "Labor does not advocate taxing big business for electric power, or increasing royalties on the resource extractors, like mining and forestry. We should be looking at increasing revenue from those who can afford it", he concluded.