Crisafulli’s one word slip sparks fear in Queensland public sector workforce

With four days until election day, Queensland Unions say public sector workers are confused and concerned by comments made yesterday by Opposition Leader David Crisafulli in relation to who an LNP government will deliver decent wages and conditions to in the Queensland public sector if elected this weekend.

Queensland Unions General Secretary Jacqueline King said Mr Crisafulli’s comments that “frontline staff deserve to be well paid” referring to “nurses, teacher and police” has raised alarm bells for the state’s public health, education, operations and administration staff.

“As an Opposition doing and saying just about whatever it takes right now to try and get elected, Mr Crisafulli’s comments yesterday raise more questions than his comments answer about his plans for the future of Queensland’s public sector workforce and the delivery of services for all Queenslanders,” Ms King said.

“Workers in schools, hospitals and public facilities across the state including our detention centres need to know – is it just nurses, teachers and police Mr Crisafulli is guaranteeing their jobs and providing pay assurance to, or will this also include the thousands of essential operational, support and other public service workers required to run Queensland’s public services?

Queensland Unions says one third of Queensland Health’s workforce alone is at risk given Mr Crisafulli’s comments – critical workers, including laundry workers, cleaners, porters, wards people, kitchen staff, security, building and maintenance, gardens, clinical assistants and administration officers.

Ms King said who knows how many more workers across the rest of the public sector would also be at risk.

“This is a significant issue because the Queensland Government is the largest employer in our state currently employing 265,000 public sector workers.

“We still haven’t seen any costings for how the LNP will maintain let alone fund increases to public sector services, wages and conditions in order to deliver quality publicly owned and operated services for our growing Queensland population,” she said.

Queensland Unions are also seeking a commitment that the LNP will not outsource the building and operation of new facilities like the proposed dedicated $80 million youth group rehabilitation facilities they have announced will go to private tender or any future expansion of other services in health and the energy sector they have flagged.

Australian Workers Union State Secretary Stacey Schinnerl says members need a clear and definitive answer from Mr Crisafulli if these centres will be staffed by public sector employees or privatised, with Queenslanders once again paying millions of dollars to multinational corporations like Serco who operate private prisons for profit with limited accountability.

“Mr Crisafulli’s response so far is completely inadequate in defining who this government would value. The workers who mop our hospital floors, cook patient meals, access medical records and keep buildings and gardens maintained deserve to know if their jobs are guaranteed to not be restructured to make way for private prisons and outsourced health services, and if they stand any chance of a fair pay deal under an LNP government,” she said.

Ms Schinnerl said job security and pay rises will be front of mind when Queensland’s public sector workforce – the largest cohort of workers in Queensland – vote this week.