One of the most important achievements of the Hodgman Government has been to get the Budget back on track.
We have balanced the budget through careful and disciplined management, not because of windfall gains.
The public sector wages bill is the Government’s biggest expense, that’s why wages policy is so important.
The previous Labor-Green Government had a wages policy of two per cent increases per year. The Hodgman Government has continued on with that policy. This is much higher than the wages policy in some states, such as Western Australia and South Australia, where the wages policy is just 1.5 per cent.
With inflation currently at 1.2 percent, a two percent increase would see public sector wages increase in real terms and nearly twice as fast as inflation.
We can afford a two percent pay rise for the public sector and we have factored that into our balanced budget. However, every percentage point above two percent across the public service would cost Tasmanian taxpayers an additional $100 million across the forward estimates.
The Government is willing to negotiate within the confines of our wages policy and in good faith, but we have also decided to make an immediate offer to public servants that will provide certainty and clarity to all employees.
The offer that we are asking the union to put to the workforce, is that all existing entitlements will remain as per the current agreement and that annual wage increases of two percent would start from the first pay in December this year.
In addition, we will also provide additional leave entitlements for family violence leave.
We believe that this is a very fair and reasonable offer and we will be communicating it to all of the employees covered by the relevant awards.
Should this offer be rejected by the unions, the Government will obviously continue to engage in negotiations in good faith and within the bounds of the Governments wages policy.