Treasurer Eric Abetz is slashing 150 jobs from Building Tasmania, leaving staff and the Tasmanians who rely on them worse off. While the Liberals’ broken budget needs fixing, it should be done by making corporations pay their fair share and stopping unnecessary spending, like on the stadium.
The Liberals’ decision to cut 150 jobs from Building Tasmania has left public service staff in the lurch about their future. This is a cruel and a stressful time for staff, who have been told there will be job cuts, but not which roles are set to go.
While the Liberals keep saying there aren’t going to be forced redundancies, their smoke screen is pretty easy to see through. When a job is to be abolished, and an employee is offered a new role or a ‘voluntary’ redundancy, it starts to feel more forced than voluntary.
Treasurer Eric Abetz’s agenda of public service cuts is cruel. It won’t just harm the Tasmanians in those roles, but the public who rely on them.
With Tasmanians already struggling to access the essential services they need, they’ll rightly be asking what’s next on the Liberals’ chopping block. Something needed to be done about the budget, but it shouldn’t be Tasmanians who pay the price.
Treasurer Abetz continues to ignore the alternatives to repair the state’s budget, even as they stare him right in the face. The truth is he’s not worried about fixing the budget. He’s a right-wing, small government hard-liner who’s living out his dream of cutting public services.
It doesn’t have to be this way. In our Alternative Budget, the Greens showed the Liberals didn’t have to cut services if they made big corporations pay their fair share, stopped the stadium and spending on their warped priorities.
Salmon farming corporations, mining companies, property developers and the gambling industry are all getting an easy ride while public services and the Tasmanians who rely on them are paying the price.
The stadium is set to cost well over the claimed $1.13 billion, and eventually every year Tasmanians will be paying over $30 million just to service the debt while it’s paid off. Continuing with the stadium while slashing public service jobs is just cold-hearted.
