Unions oppose SA local government restructuring

August 16, 1995
Issue 

By Margaret Gleeson

ADELAIDE — In what the Advertiser hailed as a "radical blueprint for local government reform" the long-awaited report of the ministerial advisory group (MAG) on local government reform was released on July 26.

MAG, a committee of five appointed last October, has produced a set of recommendations tailor made to the agenda of a conservative government. The Australian Services Union (ASU) said that the report, if implemented, would allow the state government to bypass democratic processes and recast local government.

The establishment media have focused on council amalgamations: the report calls for a reduction in the number of councils from 118 to 34 (11 metropolitan and 23 rural). According to the proposed restructuring timetable, parliament will consider legislation in November for a local government board which will have responsibility for drawing up new local government boundaries and overseeing the restructuring.

New councils will be created in December 1996 where amalgamations have not already occurred voluntarily. Elections for new councils operating under a new Local Government Act have been mooted for May 1997.

The erosion of democratic processes and, through the introduction of compulsory tendering of work, the creeping privatisation of services, have been all but ignored by the establishment press.

ASU industrial officer John Wishart told Green Left Weekly that the critical issue is not the council amalgamations, but the increased powers the MAG report gives the state Liberal government.

For example, the proposed local government board will have far-reaching powers not only to set council boundaries and appoint chief executive officers, but also to oversee the work of the structural reform committees, set up to do the dirty work at the local level.

It looks like legislation will be introduced to give the local government board the power to overturn council decisions that it doesn't agree with. Board decisions will not be appealable, Wishart said.

The new "super" councils will not contain ward subdivisions. According to Wishart, this will really tear the heart out of local government and represents a significant erosion of democratic rights. The system of council-wide electorates will make it much harder for grassroots activists and genuine independents to get elected. It delivers local government more firmly into the hands of major party machines.

Privatisation by stealth

The MAG report recommends the compulsory tendering of services and functions traditionally done by councils. This will lead to job cuts, reduced services and, in the long term, increased costs to residents.

Council workers will have to compete with multinational companies with a history of "strategic pricing" — undercutting prices to get the job, and then, later on, increasing them significantly. Also in the running will be contractors prepared to breach occupational health and safety practices and other award conditions.

Wishart described compulsory competitive tendering (CCT) as "privatisation by stealth". Council workers should not expect that they will win back their old jobs, he said. Experience in Britain shows that 60% of garbage services were contracted out to three multinational companies.

The report has adopted the Victorian CCT model; within three years, 50% of total expenditure must be tendered out. Some council administrations, already heavily into contracting out, might consider themselves unaffected. However, under the Victorian model, total expenditure includes depreciation and loan interest repayments. For example, country councils with big loan programs to finance capital works could find that they have to contract out more than 100% of their work, Wishart said.

"Job security is a thing of the past. Members are concerned about job losses, and we do need to educate them on the implications of CCT. There is a sense of false optimism in the big councils ... but the example of Liverpool in Sydney, where 30% of all jobs have gone over the last two years, is a sobering thought."

Log of claims

The ASU has invited the Australian Workers Union (the other major union covering council workers) to join the campaign against the implementation of the MAG recommendations. Following a meeting of ASU delegates on July 31, workplace meetings were called for the week beginning August 7.

The ASU is giving priority to an education campaign and will be seeking membership endorsement of a log of claims to be served on councils.

The claim calls for job security with no forced redundancies, redeployment with income maintenance, retraining for redeployed workers and access to voluntary separation packages. Unions are seeking to be fully consulted on the amalgamations.

The unions want councils to commit themselves to: establish a CCT committee with an equal number of ASU and management representatives; to provide council employees with jobs; and ensure that there is fair competition with external providers.

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