NSW cuts risk kids, roads, fires
NSW unions say plans to axe 1000 Department of Family and Community Services (DOCS) jobs will put children at risk. Treasury documents show more than 80% of the job cuts will be permanent employees.
NSW opposition leader John Robertson said on July 5: “Child protection case workers are already understaffed and struggling to keep up with the number of reports to the DOCS helpline.” He said DOCS shortages meant child protection workers were unable to follow up almost 10,000 reports of at-risk children in the second half of last year.
The NSW government will also sack more than a quarter of the staff from the Centre for Road Safety.
The Public Service Association (PSA) said the cuts will hit road safety education programs for schools, safety improvements on dangerous roads and pedestrian fencing. PSA secretary Steve Turner said the cuts will “mean a rise in the death toll”.
Budget cuts could also mean more than 10% of Sydney’s fire stations could be left unattended. Fire Brigade Employees Union secretary Jim Casey said the cuts “will clearly impact community safety ... how can [Premier] Barry O’Farrell explain to someone whose house burns down in a suburb where a station is closed that the firefighters had to come from elsewhere?”
Swinburne Uni to cut 340 TAFE jobs
Swinburne University in Melbourne has announced it will cut at least 13 TAFE courses. It’s Lilydale campus will close and 340 jobs will be axed. The university lost $35 million from its TAFE budget due to the Baillieu government’s recent funding cuts.
The July 7 Australian said another campus at Prahran may also be shut down with further job losses. Seven other TAFEs have cut almost 300 jobs so far. A further 2000 TAFE sackings are expected, while private colleges are likely to slash about 5000 positions.
Full time jobs fall away
The Australian unemployment rate grew to 5.2% in June, with a net loss of 27,000 jobs. However the real story is worse — part time jobs grew by 6600, but full time jobs fell 33,500. The Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) said total hours worked in Australia fell 1.2% in June, and were 1% lower than the same month last year.
Australia’s relatively low unemployment rate — less than half of the eurozone's 11.1% — hides the fact that job security is falling fast, as full time jobs are replaced by part time and casual work.
The Australian economy added about 47,000 jobs in the last financial year, less than a quarter of the 222,000 jobs added the year before.
As the ABS’s job figures were released, confectioner Darrell Lea was being placed in administration with 700 jobs at risk and Myer announced 100 job cuts, which it blamed on “the toughest retail conditions in 25 years”.