The comments of AEU leader Terry Polglase today show that he was never serious about a pay freeze.
It's reported that Mr Polglase said their so-called pay freeze "offer" is contingent upon the Industrial Commission to decide how big the public service is, rather than the Government that employs them and is responsible for determining what public servants do when they're at work in the first place.
It's the Government that is responsible for managing its workforce, setting the agenda and delivering it and that's exactly what we are determined to do. We are determined to get the budget back on track and we are determined to deliver on our long term Plan for Tasmania.
It's worth pointing out that for all of Mr Polglase's claims that he supports a pay freeze, he is on the record stating that a pay freeze is "insulting", a "despicable act" and "we will not accept this…"*
The Government is getting on with the job of fixing the budget mess. We won't be held to ransom by the unions, and we certainly won't outsource our responsibility to fix the budget to the Tasmanian Industrial Commission.
The Examiner, 29 August 2014