POLITICS
LIBERAL PARTY BUDGET AUSTERITY –
HYPOCRISY AT ITS WORST politicians endlessly spruik about how they love our navy, airforce and army personnel, get them (the defence forces) to vote for the conservatives and then cut their pay.
The Abbott Government’s assault on working and vulnerable Australian’s has resulted in the dismantling of our free health system, higher education costs for university students and an attack on pensions and welfare. It hasn’t stopped the bloated fat cat Tory politicians bending over backwards to help their rich mates out and the spending of taxpayers money on pursuits that only benefit themselves and their mates. George Brandis, the shining star of the Abbott Government has recently been caught out spending $1100 on dinner at the taxpayer’s expense. It appears that George was gorging at Massimo’s Restaurant which is one of London’s flashest fine dining restaurants. Georgey Boy and his companions also scoffed 3 bottles of 2010 vintage Tyrell’s Semillon-Sauvignon, supped on a bottle of upmarket Italian Cin Santo del Chianti and guzzled on some Laurent-Perrier Champagne. All covered off by ‘Mr and Mrs Scumbag’ who are paying their hard earned taxes to the Federal Government. Apparently George’s $337,000 per year salary isn’t enough to ensure he gets a decent feed. Brandis is the same Abbott Government Minister who gave a bumbling speech about metadata retention laws proposed to allow Australian security officers to spy on internet usage of private citizens (youtube.com/ watch?v=EbtgULCY5zk). He also believes that “it is OK for people to be bigots”. According to George, unlike the spending of taxpayer’s money on looking after the sick, poor and vulnerable, his fine dining was a necessary evil.
ABETZ OFFERS FEDERAL PUBLIC SERVANTS A PAY CUT WHILST SCREWING THE DEFENCE FORCES. The increasingly hard line pursued by right wing Liberal politician and Federal Government industrial relations Minister Eric Abetz has been reflected in the Government’s enterprise bargaining negotiations with at least two government departments. Abetz is offering workers a pay increase of 0%. That isn’t a typo! When cost of living increases (CPI) are taken into account, average
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RANK&FILEVoice | summer 2015
In a recent media report, when one of the defence force wives rang the Assistant Defence Minister to complain about the pay cut, his staff advised her that “the minister was too busy to ring someone like me back”. Thanks very much. workers will be copping a pay cut of between $3000 and $4,000 per year. Faced with a pay claim from the Community and Public Sector Union, Abetz sprouted the usual rhetoric that the Union’s claims were “neither responsible nor realistic”. And a pay cut is? He must be off his head. Abetz didn’t whinge about pay claims when he put his hand out for the recent pay rise given to politicians. Abetz earns $337,000 per annum. In the 2012-13 period alone, politicians awarded themselves a pay rise of $91,000 per annum (or an extra $1766 per week). Most Australian workers don’t even earn $91,000 per year, let along get that as a pay rise. Abetz has continued to get pay rises each year since. Abetz scored himself a 35% pay increase and has the audacity of sneering at public servants for wanting a little more than the ‘0% pay increase’ (or real wage cut) he is offering. Even defence force personnel are copping the brunt of the Federal Government budget austerity measures. The 1.5% increase proposed for our defence forces is also below inflation and will amount to a pay cut in real terms. Over the past two decades, the pay increases for politicians has outstripped that of defence personnel by 140%. The Australian Defence Welfare Association which is the closest thing defence personnel have to a union has described the Government offer as “outrageous” and “a joke”. The pathetic pay offer to our armed services demonstrates two things. Firstly, workers without a strong union backing them will get screwed over. Defence personnel have no union at all. Secondly, the coalition are the first to stick their hands up to wage war in distant countries (and in doing so unleashing the wave of Islamic militancy and armed struggle). Liberal and National
Not only has the Federal Government cut the defence force pay (in real terms), they have also ripped them off their annual food allowance and taken away the danger money to personnel serving in Afghanistan. Apparently it is now safe enough to take the partner and kids there on a family holiday. Perhaps our defence force personnel are now asking themselves why they bother voting for the Liberal Party. The thanks they are getting off the Liberal politicians is reflected in their pay packets.
FORMER LIBERAL PARTY POLITICIANS FIGHT FOR “WAGE JUSTICE” In a disgusting public display of greed and gluttony, former Liberal and National Party politicians have jacked up about their “gold pass” travel perks being removed. Up until the 2014 budget, former politicians were entitled to 10 return airfares within Australia each year. Business Class of course with the spouse also getting the perks. A number of former politicians have made a formal submission to the Government which they claim forms part of their ‘conditions of employment’. This is despite them being long retired. When in power, they want to trample on ordinary workers’ conditions of employment. When their gravy train gets turned off, they turn into militant advocates of their own workplace rights. It is clear how much of a rort these former Liberal Party politicians have got themselves into when we have the likes of (former multinational high flying executive and current right wing ALP politician) Gary Gray wanting to disassociate himself from their claims.
ABBOTT BACKS DOWN ON SHIRT FRONT THREAT AND SHITS HIMSELF Self-styled tough man Tony Abbott was all bluff and bluster when mouthing off about wanting to shirtfront Russian President Vladimir Putin after the Russian military shot down Malaysian Airline MH17. When fronting Putin in the flesh, Abbott shit himself and went weak at the knees. His “Good on Russia” comment was a far cry from his earlier boast that he was going to belt the Russian President. Abbott is the same boofhead who wants to lock up construction union officials because a few employers have whinged about them being too hard and because they swore. Abbott should stick to what he knows best which is picking on starving refugees, taxing the sick and the old, preventing poor students from getting a university education and wrecking the Australian economy in the process.
JOE HOCKEY’S PIPE-DREAM BUDGET The following comment best sums up Joe Hockey’s Budget and any chance he has of returning the budge to surplus: What Joe was really saying was “based on my pipe-dream budget measures, which disproportionately punish the less well-off and favour the speculating rich, the budget will in a few years’ time arrive on my desk, nicely balanced, accompanies by rainbows and a unicorn”.
DOUG HEATH MUA WA Branch