By Malcolm Maclean
ROCKHAMPTON — A rally opposing federal and state budget cuts drew 300 workers here on July 19.
Speakers included local MLA Robert Schwarten, Gordon Rennie, general secretary of the State Public Service Federation (Queensland), and Marie Brennan from the Central Queensland University Education Faculty.
Speakers called for a coalition of trade unions and community groups to fight the cuts, especially in regional and rural areas. In Rockhampton, 38% of the work force is employed in the public sector. People were angered that while the state government is cutting spending, it spent $80 million playing the stock markets to build a super-bank that will only increase the power of finance capital to control workers' lives.
ACTU organisers also allowed Paul Marek, National Party MP for Capricornia, to address the rally. Marek's calls for opposition to cuts in regional areas and more cuts in metropolitan areas were met by a loud and rousing chant of "No cuts!".
Marek's audacity in claiming the right to speak at a workers' forum is matched only by the poor political judgment of the local ACTU officials in allowing him to speak.