
Issue No 55		26 May 2000

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Budget Raises More Questions than Answers

The Carr Government's failure to properly chart the level of need in the community has left a question mark hanging over Treasurer Michael Egan's $659 million budget surplus.

The Labor Council has renewed its call for a social audit, amidst concerns that important areas of social expenditure remain underfunded, particularly in community services.

Labor Council secretary Michael Costa says the surplus is 'meaningless' without a proper audit on levels of community need and expectation for government services.

"The Treasurer's continual refusal to countenance a social audit makes it impossible to test his bona fides on social expenditure," Costa says.

"This leaves open the basic problem: how can anyone tell whether the budget meets community expectations and needs if the government is not prepared to properly analyse them?

"Until the government is prepared to undertake a proper social audit, the community will always be left guessing."

Community Workers Left Adrift

Meanwhile, the Australians Services Union says that while the budget has increased spending on community services, no money has been allocated to improve the pay and conditions for workers in non-government community service organizations.

The workers, employed by private bodies that rely on the government for funding, have been seeking improved wages and conditions but have been told the funding is not there.

ASU services branch secretary Alison Peters says there is also no mention in the budget about whether grants to community organizations will be increased to compensate for the upcoming GST.

"Both the failure to provide for award improvements and to compensate for the GST will severely impact on community organisation's ability to deliver essential services," Peters says.

"At atime when demand for these services is increasing, the increases announced in the Budget will not be sufficient. What looks good at first glance appears, on closer examination, to be sadly lacking."

Concerns Over WEB Move

The ASU has also raised questions about the budget decision to transfer the Women's Equity Bureau out of the Department for Industrial Relations and into the Department for Women.

Peters says there are concerns that by transferring WEB out of the DIR, it will reduce the WEB's ability to ensure gender issues are integral to the Department's work.

"The ASU is concerned that the transfer of WEB - along with a reduction in staff - could be viewed as a lessening of the Government's commitment to women workers.

In brighter news, the budget included a further $250, 000 to fund its outworker project and a $100, 000 grant to the Working Women's Centre for community relations programs and specific community projects.

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Issue 55 contents

Interview: The University of Rupert
National Tertiary Education Union president Dr Carolyn Allport on News Corp's move into tertiary education and the Universitas 21 experiment.

International: The Unionist Who Sparked a Coup
Workers Online's Fiji expert Andrew Casey profiles one of the men at the centre of the crisis, detained PM Mahendra Chaudry

Unions: The Call to Action
The Australian Services Union is leading the push into the call centre industry. But winning these new workplaces is a major challenge.

Politics: Workplace Gladiators
Peter Reith as Russell Crowe? That's the image Labor IR spokesman Arch Bevis conjured up in a frecent address to the Industrial Relations Society.

History: How to be a Good Unionist
It's 1917, WWI rages and federal public servants are given these rules on how to dischare their responsibility as members.

Legal: The Price of Solidarity
Intimidation, threats and even murder still await many workers who attempt to organize in a number of countries around the world, says a new ILO report.

Review: Inconvenient History
In may be cold comfort to Republicans, but the vote for Federation was every bit as tempestuous as this collection of articles shows.

Satire: World Bank Caves In
In a victory for Seattle protestors, international monetarists have decreed that global utopia to begin immediately.

» Fiji Faces International Union Blockade

» Workers Return to Dump Reith's Third Wave

» Budget Raises More Questions than Answers

» Teachers Finally Achieve Satisfaction

» FairWear Campaign Targets Uniforms

» Rio Tinto Appeals for Industrial Peace

» Beer Hike Sparks Worker Concerns

» Libs Fail to Block Family Friendly Laws

» No Joy For 'Back Door' Pete

» Angry Truckies Converge on Border

» Unions Dues Test Case Looms

» Why Solidarity Messages Mean Something

» Radio Free East Timor Rocks

» The Soapbox

» Sport

» Trades Hall

» Tool Shed

» Neale's Spot On!

» Silence on the GST

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