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How can they dance when the promises are burning?

Ged Kearney

by Ged Kearney

04 Apr 05:45am

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Filed under: Barry Ofarrell, Election Promises, Public Service, State Elections, State Governments, State Politics, States

90 comments

Given we don’t have an official national dance, I would like to nominate one. Let’s call it ‘the Election Day Waltz’. It has a few tricky steps, then a big finale that always ends up the same way.

See the thing is, when I said yes what I actually meant was no. Also, I like mimicking Obama's hand movements. Pic: Brad Hunter.

New NSW Premier Barry O’Farrell was doing the dance this week. First the light steps through the campaign: ‘there will be no public sector job cuts, there will be no cuts to services’, up there on his tippy toes all grace and poise.

Then he lands with a thud. The day after the election he ‘discovers’ a ‘budget black hole’ and he starts stomping around on the very workers and services he was reassuring just days ago.

This is not just a dance for leaders in New South Wales. It seems Premiers around the nation are finding ways to justify breaking their commitments on public services.

In Victoria, Ted Baillieu has shamelessly backed down on his promise to make Victorian teachers the best paid in Australia, now muttering that they’ll have to earn it. He’s also angered police by putting an underwhelming pay offer to them, despite running a law and order campaign to get elected.

In South Australia, the public sector assocation is taking the State Government to court over cuts to entitlements.

In WA, another 400 cuts have been announced on top of 800 people last year. The state with the biggest mineral boom in recent history still can’t find the money to pay its essential public sector workers properly.

Even federally, there are strong suspicions that the Government will move to balance the budget on the back of cuts to public sector agencies. Increasing the so-called “efficiency dividend” means forcing agencies like Centrelink or Medicare have to do more with less.

Public servants are an easy target for Governments who play on popular misconceptions about “fat cats” and lazy bureaucrats.

Actually, my experience tells me that most public servants are dedicated professionals, with skills that can’t be replaced overnight, and a commitment to serving the people of Australia. Just think of the number of public servants who worked overtime during Cyclone Yasi, running the relief and emergency payments systems that got food and clothing to people flooded out of their homes.

A good public service is the most essential piece of infrastructure the government owns. If it is left to decay, or taken for granted, or if budgets are cut too much, then the damage can take years to repair, and we are all left as losers.

Services like child protection or caring for people with disability will never be done by the private sector – because there’s no money to be made. If we want these things done, we need to have a strong public sector.

The other myth that Governments put out is that they can somehow only cut non-essential public servants, and keep the “frontline staff”.

It’s not that simple. For example, if we cut the secretaries, IT staff or other people who support our police, then serving officers will simply spend more time on paperwork and trying to fix computers than keeping us safe and stopping crime.

The other issue that concerns me is the way that newly-elected Premiers beat the drum of “state’s rights” and “standing up to Canberra”. Both Mr Baillieu and Mr O’Farrell have indicated they’ll take a tougher approach to their relations with the Federal Government.

The states and territories have a right to protect their interests but lets not forget we’re all Australians and have a lot to gain from the states working together.

But there’s more on the table. We’re moving towards a national health agreement to put more money into hospitals. A lot of work has been done on a National Curriculum for schools so children who move interstate won’t suffer.

The big challenges that face this country, like an ageing population and climate change, are bigger than just one state. Demanding that years of negotiations and work through COAG be thrown into reverse now that a new state government has been elected is a recipe for bad government.

So, good luck Mr O’Farrell. But don’t forget that if you want to leave NSW better than you found it, the people who’ll be doing the grunt work are your public service. And you’ll get a lot more done if you genuinely work with your fellow Premiers and the Federal Government rather than blindly opposing them.

Ultimately the public wants to see their leaders keeping in step with each other, not changing the moves half way through the program.

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90 comments

Show oldest | newest first

    • acotrel says:

      05:14am | 04/04/11

      ‘The day after the election he ‘discovers’ a ‘budget black hole’ and he starts stomping around on the very workers and services he was reassuring just days ago. ‘

      I think I must be psychic!  I had a faint suspicion something remotely like this might happen! You don’t have to be Einstein?

      Reply

    • TChong says:

      06:22am | 04/04/11

      Politics 101 - make promises, then find reasons to break promises, usually citing the previos administation as the reason.
      Standard practice , from all sides, since Adam was a boy.

    • Ripa says:

      07:22am | 04/04/11

      TC and AC
      The more you stamp your feet and cry, considering the disastrous state NSW is in, the more you look , well stupid, NSW is a wreck, Sartor called it “indulgence”, thats just code for corruption. You dont have to be Einstein to see the shit Labor left us in.

    • TChong says:

      07:48am | 04/04/11

      Good on ya Ripa.
      WTF you talking about?
      Loathing Abbott and his flat earth, dog whistling , down ward spiral to lowest common denominator, does not = support for Labor.
      But, thanks for trying.  wink

    • TChong says:

      08:04am | 04/04/11

      Ripa - see Sheehans article in Fairfax this am.
      Both sides are same, and will act the same.
      Even Sheehan , hardly a Lefty apologist ,concedes so.

    • Carter says:

      08:43am | 04/04/11

      @Ripa

      NSW is not a mess, it just had a very inept Government. And there’s no sign that BO’F will be any better.

      When Carr came to power in 1995, he inherited a $10billion debt. From the Liberal Party.

      Since then, vital roads projects (M4, M2, M7, Eastern Distributor, etc) have ben built and run efficiently (the Cross city tunnel is the exception, not the rule), trains by and large run on time and are clean, new train lines have been built (to budget), the Olympic Games was run successfully and paid off (even if paying it off meant there was less to spend on services), NSW hospitals are widely regarded as the best in the country. NSW still has a AAA credit rating and forward projections keep it that way for at least four years.

      If you disagree, look it up.

    • Ryan says:

      09:50am | 04/04/11

      @TChong: oh common Chongie, that’s a bit rich coming from you, we all know you are a rusted on Laborite.

    • Reg says:

      09:51am | 04/04/11

      Bottom line is O’Farrell can’t be any worse than what we’ve been subjected to from NSW Labor for at least the last 4 years.

      Like most people, I’m prepared to give him a 1 year honeymoon period to sort out the ALP mess.

      It’s a sad state when NSW is looked at with such sympathy from all the other states in Australia, including Qld…

    • Rosie says:

      11:17am | 04/04/11

      Probably because they took over from useless Labor Premiers, definitely in NSW and Victoria recently!

      The after election dance to the Watusi more like it “Watusi the Labor cobwebs away”! NSW will require not just the dance but the “Watusi spell.”

    • TimB says:

      11:18am | 04/04/11

      Ryan it’s an interesting trend I’ve found among the more well known lefties on the Punch. They will defend Labor’s policies to the death, and castigate Tony & the Libs for every percieved slight. But whenever they’re accused of voting Labor, it’s all “Oh I don’t vote Labor”.

      I’m guessing it would be the equivalent of me doing something like allocating my first preference to the Socialist Alliance (for kicks smile ), then directing my second preference vote to the Libs. Then I could theoretically turn around and claim “I don’t vote Liberal”. It would be just as meaningless.

      It’s clear from what he writes where Chongy intends his vote to go. Same goes for all the others who play the same semantic games. It’s just sad (and rather telling) that they feel too embarrassed to admit it.

    • acotrel says:

      11:45am | 04/04/11

      @Ryan The party which opposes Abbott in the strongest way, is the party I will vote for!

    • Ryan says:

      12:53pm | 04/04/11

      @acotrel: whats your beef with Tony, are you sure you aren’t Pauline Hanson?

    • TChong says:

      02:29pm | 04/04/11

      Thats right TimmyB .
      Bagging 1 Vote Abbott , Mirabella, Bishops Senior and Minor, Hokey Joe , Little Jimmy , Morrison et al is far more fun than defending the ALP.

    • Erick says:

      06:31am | 04/04/11

      This is probably not the best time for Labor apparatchiks to accuse *other* parties’ leaders of breaking election promises. Carbon tax, East Timor processing centre, etc, etc, etc

      Reply

    • Phil says:

      07:09am | 04/04/11

      Erick couldnt agree more. Maybe I was sick or not looking the day that Hawker, Kearney, Farr, Kenny did the pieces on how Gillard broke her promises.
      The hypocrisy is amazing.
      If anyone in NSW and even the whole country doesnt think that there are too many public service jobs in NSW many not offering front line services that could be naturally reduced, ie not replacing those who leave, then they have been under a rock for ages.
      At least TC agrees that both sides do this when they fund black holes. After all if Labor state governments provided accurate financials then it would be much easier to know where you are. Problem is that running the local work branch of your union doesnt adequatly qualify you to manage the state or national economies.

    • Antipodes says:

      07:16am | 04/04/11

      Why isn’t a good time Erick? Because you will get upset that the same slurs are registered against your (sorry LNP et al.) apparatchiks? Since the Federal election, you and your conservative cronies have done nothing else but level these complaints against Labor. Yes, they are true and the Gillard Government is guilty of appalling reversals. But so were previous conservative governments at State and Federal levels. The bottom line is that both sides of politics have no shame when it comes to Core and Non-Core promises. You just need to toughen up and take the medicine that you dished out ‘cos its comin’ back up the oesophagus and heading your direction.

    • Adam Diver says:

      09:46am | 04/04/11

      Disagree Erick, both sides need to be held to the same standards, although with several caveats.

      Whilst I don’t neccessarily disagree with Barry’s policies, he should have the balls to say it upfront before the election. It wasnt like he was going to lose it anyway.

    • Erick says:

      12:18pm | 04/04/11

      Oh, I’m not excusing Liberals for any promises they might break. It’s just a bit ironic to see Labor hacks condemning such things, while ignoring the sins committed by their own mob.

    • mel says:

      08:38pm | 04/04/11

      Erick, I think you are indeed excusing the Liberals. In the comments made by you that I recall, I can’t actually remember any even-handed appraisal of how both sides of politics lie, break promises, have policy reversals, act in a way to ensure their re-election, etc. Rather you have simply played a one note trumpet bagging Labor. A bit like Rosie. Of course, you could start now by admitting how morally bankrupt the Liberals were when they were in power.

    • sir ronald bradnam says:

      07:01am | 04/04/11

      I dont know why we are surprised politicians are the same the world over the only difference is the colour of their skins and their accents.

      Reply

    • Paul says:

      07:55am | 04/04/11

      We don’t have a “good public service” let’s face it.
      I spent 18 months in the Queensland public service, best paid job of my life.
      Yes, the men and woman at the coal face work hard, but the shiny bums sitting behind computers on floors and floors of office space, frankly do bugger all.
      I had nothing to do after 11am, and was told to “file your emails”.
      I quit because life for me is too short to sit doing nothing but attend meetings to discuss the agenda for the next meeting and being on standby in case the minister needed something in a hurry.  There were 18 of us in this standby department.
      They are all still there.

      Reply

    • Tubesteak says:

      08:38am | 04/04/11

      My experience of the public service, after having worked there and having relatives who still do, is that it is the biggest glorified work for the dole scheme ever.

      No-one does a decent day’s work. It’s just a bunch of people that can’t get real jobs and work a piddly 7 hours a day and get time off for some of the most ridiculous things.

      Cutting much of the useless areas of the public service is the best thing any government can do. Keep the police, nurses and teachers but take an axe to the rest. Stop bleeding taxpayers dry.

    • VVS says:

      09:56am | 04/04/11

      I would personally find it embarrassing to work in most areas of the public service.

      There are some that do important jobs, such as police, teachers, doctors and nurses. And for the pittance they are paid, they should be commended.

      But I suspect there is a large proportion of halfwits there who are employed for the sole purpose of keeping unemployment figures down.

    • Little Tim says:

      12:03pm | 04/04/11

      Yep, inefficient, inflexible and downright lazy. The conditions under which they work are just fabulous. That’s what I saw when I did a little consulting in the Public Service. Sure, they’re are some that work hard, perhaps 10%, but most of the others spend they’re time explaining why they can’t do something, or trying to foist it on the few that actually do work.

      Not only do we need to cut the public service, we need to change the conditions so performance is improved. Most important, give managers the option to discipline and sack non-performers.

    • Public Service Cuts says:

      07:56am | 04/04/11

      Ged since you establish anecdotal (‘in my experience in the public service’) as credible rationale for justifying maintaining public service jobs, then act as though essential services are the only type of public service jobs out there I’d like to throw counter-anecdote.  After 6 years working across the federal public service I can confidently say I’ve never seen such wanton waste, self-indulgent whiners and general bloating of the bureaucracy.  There are people who work very hard, I don’t deny this.  But to say we could do away with 1/10 and have no net output loss is pretty fair.  But we don’t, because they’re heavily unionised and with a 47 minute lunchbreak and a 421pm finish time, its no wonder they have all that flex-time up their sleeves for days off for golf, stirring up workplace trouble to protect their ‘rights’ to inefficiency rather than realizing they are irrelevant out this public service bubble thats come about in Australia.  Police, firies, nurses should be paid more to encourage good people into industries I would never work in but the rest of them ... you’ve got to be kidding.

      Reply

    • Oh Boy says:

      03:07pm | 04/04/11

      I recently had the pleasure of meeting several times with a senior public servant on a $250K salary who quite clearly has a lot of spare time on his hands. When I asked about his obviously laid-back role he laughed, saying he wished he’d known about the PS when he was younger (he came in from the construction sector). His taxpayer funded job, he tells me, consists mainly of a weekly ‘signing off’ on the work of underlings, and occasionally, but not often, dealing with issues that require him to travel to site. The rest of the time, he tells me, he mainly reads the papers, sharpens and arranges his pencils, meets anyone who asks to meet him for coffee or lunch, acts in his role as secretary for his social club, and plays the stock market for fun and profit. I now know what I want to come back as next time round.

    • iansand says:

      04:40pm | 04/04/11

      My gripes are:

      a - Finding someone who is prepared to make a decision; and
      b - Having someone take responsibility for making a decision.

      I am sick of being duck shoved into and out of committees, working parties, memoranda, position papers, papers of various shades and hues and meetings, all designed to ensure that, if the wheels come off, no one can be identified as the maker of a decision (assuming it ever gets made) and no one can be blamed for the consequences.

    • Cloud Strife says:

      08:01am | 04/04/11

      I love the irony that Baillieu spent years complaining about those dastardly revenue raising speed cameras and how his government was going to fix them, and then, after the election, he installed a bunch of new speed cameras.

      Mmmm, delicious irony.

      Reply

    • Gladys says:

      08:32am | 04/04/11

      Oh, no you don’t! You hypocritical, whining voice of the union movement!

      How dare you stand there and criticise non-Labor governments around the country and stand mute on the biggest electoral-promise acrobat in the land!

      Is it because she’s a woman you’re not going to call her to account on breaking a promise which will hurt teachers more than Ballieu’s ‘they can earn their pay increases’? At least Ballieu will give them pay increases. What’s Gillard going to give ordinary Australians (read teachers, cleaners, nurses, grounds people and other regular folk) in return for slugging them with a tax that will probably cause hyperinflation.

      Or is it your myopic ideology that won’t let you see the fact through the machine’s fiction trees?

      No wonder your mob was creamed in NSW.

      Reply

    • jimbo says:

      08:55am | 04/04/11

      O’Farrell is following a Labor Government into power.  Of course the State finances are in a mess, that’s how Labor always leaves them.  The trough is empty.

      Reply

    • John A Neve says:

      09:37am | 04/04/11

      Jimbo,

      If what you say is true? But no, I am sure you are correct, after all you have inside info don’t you?

      The question is why did O’Farrell make these silly statements?

    • JT says:

      09:37am | 04/04/11

      Oh look, another pearler of a column from Ged Kearney. Does anyone apart from the rusted on Labor fools really give a crap that the public service will be cut?

      So far in little over a week Barry has the thumbs up from me. Scrapped the water, climate change and environment portfolios. All wasted and pointless portfolios. Appointed a roads minister who has already told cyclists to use the paths or lose them (I say lose them) so if he takes a chainsaw to the public service next, even better.

      Now if he should just go a bit further and replace the RTA with a body that is actually pro-car and amalgamate councils and strip them off all powers other than cleaning/garbage removal.

      Reply

    • Tubesteak says:

      10:55am | 04/04/11

      We need a “Like” button for comments.

      Would make things so much easier around here.

    • Elphaba says:

      11:09am | 04/04/11

      @Tubesteak, agreed.

      As for Ged, methinks she doth protest too much.  The reality is, we had four-fifths of nothing under State Labor, and Labor wrote the book on broken election promises.

      And since Labor learnt nothing by appointing a union boss as the new leader, O’Farrell can look forward to 8 years in power.  There’s no way they can recover in 4.

      Ged, it’s two weeks in.  You’re going to run out of puff if you start whinging now.  Pace yourself.

    • ibast says:

      09:39am | 04/04/11

      Didn’t he say the day after the election he wasn’t going to make the cabinet any bigger?

      Reply

    • Darren says:

      09:46am | 04/04/11

      I won the office sweep as to when the budget black hole would be found! I said 12 noon on the monday and it was 12.05.! nobody guessed anyhing past Monday arvo - we all know this game

      Reply

    • Ryan says:

      11:36am | 04/04/11

      @Darren: which one, the corrupt canceling of parliament to avoid an inquiry or the corrupt shredding of documents to cover up the defrauding of public funds to the Labor party through the unions?

    • Muttley says:

      01:12pm | 04/04/11

      Touchy eh Ryan?  Fatty O Barrell started making excuses as to why he was lying while walking out of the polling booths. What you are saying may have been true under the tragedy that was the last government, but that doesnt excuse the conga line of lies dripping from Bazza. Two wrongs eh?

    • Ryan says:

      04:57pm | 04/04/11

      @Muttley: not at all, he hasn’t done anything yet, perhaps he has jobs for these people, just in different departments.

    • mel says:

      08:45pm | 04/04/11

      Darren, I said the same things to my friends and they called my psychic! But they are young and don’t know better. It’s very interesting to see conservatives like Ryan trying to defend such well worn and well known tactics. They have no shame.

    • Ryan says:

      09:48pm | 04/04/11

      @mel: oh please, who has used this tactic in the past?
      On another note, he did deliver on two promises today, he repealed the planning act that allowed for the corrupt Labor government to take backhanders from developers to allow high rise apartment blocks to be built without council planning.
      Oh and he also delivered his 100 day plan.
      Whats that I hear, applause?

    • mel says:

      06:19am | 05/04/11

      Oh Ryan, were you born yesterday? Here’s a link to an article in the AFR from way back in 1996 discussing the dodgy dancing used by Howard and Costello when they tried the same excuse.

      http://www.uq.edu.au/economics/johnquiggin/news96/Blackhole9605.html

      But you will, of course, dismiss this analysis since it was produced by a left leaning academic. What would a professor of economics know.

    • Ryan says:

      10:52am | 05/04/11

      @mel: but Howard and Costello paid off all of Labors debt and left us with a surplus that got us through the GFC.
      Lets see who I trust, a bunch of lefty socialists (AKA communists) that spent every last penny and are hell bent on destroying Australian industry and selling off all the farm land to China or a bunch who cared about the prosperity of the country and its people enough to plan for the future.
      The proof is in the delivery, proven applicable sound economic managers versus an unemployable academic who hides in university, has no real life experience and zero proof that his summations are reality.

    • mel says:

      01:51pm | 05/04/11

      You seem to be missing the point of this article, Ryan. It’s not about delivering promises while in office but this ‘dance of broken promises’ parties do after the election. Both sides deliver on promises, both sides break them. I don’t think you’ve understood that. You have your ideological/political barrow to push and you will do that, no matter what anyone else writes.

    • Ryan says:

      02:47pm | 05/04/11

      @mel: do please list the promises that the Labor party has actually delivered. The list will be pretty short so you don’t have to worry about running out of space.
      The pathetic attempt by the Labor crowd to compare the Liberals with Labor as being even remotely similar is laughable and deserves mockery.

    • mel says:

      06:39pm | 05/04/11

      Ryan you certainly have trouble with reading comprehension, don’t you. You’ve missed the point of the article once again and keep pushing your little barrow of left-hatred. (If I was you, I would be seeking damages from your high school because they did a very poor job of teaching you.) Once again for you, the article is not about delivery but rather non delivery or breaking election promises by political parties. Do you really, really not understand that?

      And I can’t be bothered listing broken election promises (see how I’ve kept on topic here) from any of the sides of politics. I lack the monomaniac’s stamina.

    • Gregg says:

      10:19am | 04/04/11

      Until we have laws that put politicians and PS bureaucrats in jail for negligent misappropriation of public funds and misrepresenting what the financial status of states/territories/the country is, we cannot expect any better of governments or oppositions.

      There should be a standard for costing adhered to and both the party in power and opposition parties, they having to put forward their basic programs six months before an election is scheduled or otherwise forfeit the right to contest an election.

      The parties can then stick to presenting the merit of their policies rather than introducing promises.

      An election can then come down to a clear choice on how a party will intend to raise taxes and its prioritising of expenditure, the performance of a government there to be seen.
      No need for smoke and mirrors and the finding or digging of black holes even if they can be used for mass burials.

      Reply

    • Robbo says:

      10:28am | 04/04/11

      If the finances of our states and country were made transparent and accountable, as they should be to all of us as we are effectively their employers, then we wouldn’t have “black holes” and the last minute paper shredding that occurs when governments transition.

      Reply

    • David Worth says:

      11:09am | 04/04/11

      I still wonder that nothing was made of O’farrells lack of private sector experience during the election campaign. . .O’farrell has spent his entire “working life” on the public payoll and now wants to take the axe to the public service. . . Incredible !!

      Reply

    • PTom says:

      11:28am | 04/04/11

      BOF can’t uses the a Budget Black hole to break promises beacuse that was one of his promises. But I guess it ok for him to lie after all he is a Libarl.

      Reply

    • Stiffy says:

      11:30am | 04/04/11

      BOF is bonkers to keep that hypen that was in charge of education. Hasn’t he heard of pillow talk?

      Reply

    • NGS says:

      11:44am | 04/04/11

      Back in you cupboard, Ged, you and your mates time in the sun is over and you need to realise we, the people, dont want or need you. You are too destructive, power hungry and corrupt, and you have shown your hand again and again over the years of Labor mis rule. Go get a real job, something productive for a change

      Reply

    • HappyCynic says:

      11:50am | 04/04/11

      The public service in NSW is bloated, filled with yes-men, inefficient and corrupt.  They haven’t been giving frank and fearless advice to pollies in years which means they haven’t been doing their jobs.

      Plenty of good reasons for O’Barrell to clean shop a bit.  Jeff Kennet did it in Victoria why shouldn’t the fat man of NSW do the same?  Using a “budget black hole” as an excuse, even if it’s true, is weak though.

      Reply

    • gra gra says:

      11:57am | 04/04/11

      Did anyone expect the BOF to say, “Labor have left us in good nick”? Behave.
      I’m a Labor member, and have been for most of my working life, (and afterlife). I’m proud to a member of the only Party that really cares about the majority of Australians. Of course, I’m talking ‘true’ Labor, not this mob cavorting around Queensland in hard-hats. Not the self-serving crowd of opportunists who were just emptied in NSW. Gilliard is more my cup of tea. Yes, she made a promise, and then renegged like Howard, Abbott, and every pollie who ever stood on a soapbox did. No surprises there. She should have simply said, “I was wrong”, or, “I changed my mind”. I’d rather someone change their mind than have them dogmatically cling to a policy they discovered was not best for the nation.
      Looking at the matter of carbon, who honestly has the best policy for the majority of Australians. Read them both, and then decide. Honestly.

      Reply

    • TrueOz says:

      12:42pm | 04/04/11

      “...Ted Baillieu has shamelessly backed down on his promise to make Victorian teachers the best paid in Australia, now muttering that they’ll have to earn it.”

      Now there’s a novel concept for public servants - having to “earn” a living. Maybe the same standards could start being applied to Union hacks who sprout BS on The Punch too.

      Ted Baillieu for PM!

      Reply

    • MarK says:

      12:46pm | 04/04/11

      The thing that is really amusing is Labor claimed the black hole is a difference of accounting practices.

      Hmm. Didn’t federal Labor poo poo that same claim last election from the Libs?

      HAHAHAHAHA.

      We all trust treasury when it is on our side.

      By the way Ged the public sector have to shoulder some of the blame for the mess we are in her in NSW.

      If you really are about saving jobs then I am keen to see your package that fights the carbon tax. Your members are in much more danger of job losses relating to that than any other policy or political artiface currently on the table.

      What say you Ged? Ready to fight the good fight?

      Reply

    • James Hunter says:

      12:47pm | 04/04/11

      No matter what one thought of KK or state Labour one thing she said that is resonating loudly in my ears is “How can you trust a man who won’t tell you what he plans to do” Now we all se why. BOFFA’S no better then any of the others just a few days in and the broken prommises are starting to flow. Actually looks like a sunami brewing.

      Reply

    • TB says:

      12:47pm | 04/04/11

      Recently got a job in the public service, I don’t know how long I’ll last here as I have nothing to do but it will be a nice holiday until I get bored and leave. I have staff that I would like to get rid of but can’t, things I would like to do but have to go through so much red tape it’s not worth it. You really could fire at least 25% of people here and not notice the difference.

      Reply

    • Tezza says:

      12:51pm | 04/04/11

      Let me see if I have got this correct? Ged Kearney started out as a nurse, but since 2003 she has been a full time union official, and is now President of ACTU. So anything she has to say about NSW politics would be disinterested and unbiassed, right? Wrong. Like the Pope’s views on the Devil, or Osama Bin Laden’s views on the U.S. (or perhaps Obama’s views on Mr Bin Laden), there is nothing that is not entirely predictable and uninteresting about Ged’s take on Barry O’Farrell.
      Why does the Punch bother to waste its readers’ time by printing her drivel.

      Reply

    • St. Michael says:

      03:02pm | 04/04/11

      Probably for the same reason it chooses to publish drivel written by variously by Kevin Andrews, Sophie Mirabella, Joe Hockey, and Bronwyn Bishop.  Although for some reason these four tired old pollies seem to get more airtime than a tired old union organiser.

    • Dash says:

      01:04pm | 04/04/11

      Unions represent about 15% of the working population. The other 85% don’t need one or care what they say or do. You are irrelevant to most workers and you are the cause of the ALPs loss in NSW. Please go away and take your lefty propaganda with you!

      Reply

    • Muttley says:

      01:17pm | 04/04/11

      no, you just think they dont have a place. Of course employers will just pony up rises because you are such a nice person. And perhaps you dont need them to argue for you, but there are many out there that do. The young and new to enter the workforce spring to mind. But thats ok as it would fit with the outlook of “screw you jack, i’m fine”

    • Kelvin says:

      01:48pm | 04/04/11

      Someone from the ACTU spruiking a holy gospel about broken promises and sheeting them home to a government that hasn’t even started work on repairing years of Labor disasters and corruption is a more than a bit rich.

      Maybe she should look at her main bed buddy Julia for a start before telling the rest of the world how to do things.

      Frankly blind Freddy could leave NSW in better shape than it is now thanks wholly and solely to the former Labor government and its union mates.

      Kearney - you’re as irrelevant as your article.

      Reply

    • Robert S McCormick says:

      03:42pm | 04/04/11

      If Governments, Federal & State, ALP or Coalition stopped hiding the truth about Federal, State & Territory finances these promises would not need tobe broken.
      Treasury Departments should be100% Independent, just like the Reserve Bank of Australia (RBA), & be legally required to report every quarter & again a minimum of 4 weeks prior to any Federal, State or Territory Election, as to the true state of finances Federally or at State & Territory levels we would see an end to a newly elected government having to revise or renege on their promises.
      This, though it might reflect badly on the government-of-the-day, would ensure that governments behaved honestly. We would see the end to a government, of whatever persuasion, telling us that ‘the economy is boomimg, all’s well with the world’ when, in fact, the coffers are empty.
      The current system is broken. It is deliberately rorted by sitting governments.
      Let us have fully independent Treasury Departments which, unlike at present, those in charge of them can simply hold up their middle fingers to any politician who tries to tell, or possibly by some inducement persuade,
      them to paint a nice picture where there are no red numbers in any columns of the ledger. We might also get some fiscal responsibility coming to the fore.
      Wouldn’t that be nice?

      Reply

    • Ricky says:

      05:06pm | 04/04/11

      Ahh the cries from the overly protected PSA. About time some back office bureacrast started shaking in fear for their publicly funded lifestyle. People Like Tchong and Acrotel probably have family members enbedded in the inefficient PSA. Go Barry, time to take out the rubbish that has paased as the NSW Labor party staffed Bureaucracy. Can’t wait for half of the families of ALP MP’s to actual start doing some work or try to find and keep a job in the public sector. 50% of the ANNUAL STATE BUDGET for NSW is blown on wages, wages not only for teachers, nurses and Police but for the thousands and thousands of back office bureacrats, whose only job has been to justify their own existance. Go Barry, take it to the PSA and make sure yuo clean out the ALP infested back offices of the useless, corrupt and cronyism that has become standard in the NSW public service.

      Reply

    • hazym says:

      05:12pm | 04/04/11

      Err… one way to stop incoming govts from finding a funding shortfall/‘black hole’ would for outgoing govts to not leave one and/or not lie about the true state of the finances. Funny how the author seems so very very upset that O’Farrell found a funding shortfall but not the slightest upset that the pack or liars all known as the ALP left a shortfall AND lied about it.

      .....oh and by the way (and this seems to also be of no concern to our ‘impartial’ commenator), O’Farrell has already said this shortfall won’t be used to break election promises. But I’m sure that our author, who clearly anxiously beleived everything the outgoing ALP said, will choose to not beleive the incoming government.

      Reply

    • Dave C says:

      08:05pm | 04/04/11

      Ged you are wrong. BOF needs to take an axe to the bloated NSW Public Service only this time from the top down. 

      The DG of DET earned more than the PM and Premier and he wasnt a teacher and never worked in education at all.  He was in essence a spin doctor who is married to a Federal ALP minister. How many more partners of ALP politicians are also in the top Public Service positions?, The Ex member for Balmain husband who got dont for drug use is another example that comes to mind

      The top levels of of the public service were all ex ALP and Union hacks who earned ridiculous amounts of money making sure that no bad news ever appeared and all good news which made Carr/Iemma/Rees/Keannelly look good. Get rid of them Barry and replace them with career people who have worked in the coalface and know how those below feel.

      Yes teachers (and disclosure I am one) Cops, Nurses, Docs workers, Prison Guards etc, yes they dont need to be sacked, if anything they need to be supported and paid more in the most expensive state to live in. But those in the top offices around Parliament and those at the top of those offices earning too much money, get rid of the Barry while you can.

      Reply

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