By Peter Boyle
MELBOURNE — In his victory speech, new Victorian Premier Jeff Kennett tried his best to sound conciliatory. But he soon proved how futile it can be to repress a burning desire (in this case, to put the boot into the union movement). "Better days will come if we are all part of it", he said, "the vast majority of victims — um, Victorians".
The slip won laughs from the crowd of jubilant Coalition supporters at the opulent Southern Cross Hotel, but few others are likely to find it funny. In his first days in office, Kennett has made it clear he intends to replace the state's industrial awards with an employment contracts system heavily biased in favour of individual contracts.
Also on the agenda are privatisation, attacks on workers' compensation and job shedding in the public sector.
Phillip Gude, the new minister for industrial relations, says legislation for the new system (which will affect the 40% of workers covered by state awards), is "virtually finalised" and will be introduced soon after state parliament reconvenes on October 27. Workers currently under state awards will be allowed to remain under these awards only if their employers agree.
Victorian Trades Hall Council secretary John Halfpenny emerged from a 45-minute private meeting with Kennett on October 8 saying the government refused to back down on its industrial relations program, and unions would resist these changes and planned attacks on workers' entitlements under Workcare, which covers work-related injuries.
However, Kennett after the meeting predicted industrial peace at least until Christmas. Halfpenny also said the unions would cooperate with the government to create jobs and economic growth.
A special meeting of unions the day before had resolved to oppose Kennett's industrial relations changes through legal and industrial action. According to State Public Service Federation president Kay McVey, the meeting authorised the VTHC to coordinate the campaign, to seek a joint executive meeting with the ACTU, and to ask the federal Labor government to legislate to facilitate workers moving from state to federal awards.
The SPSF and other unions covering state public sector workers failed in attempts to move to federal awards before the elections. The pay and conditions of most SPSF members are not covered by any award but are determined by the Public Service Act, and so can be changed by an act of parliament.
McVey told Green Left Weekly that most union delegates appeared "shell-shocked" at the election result, and it was unclear how much will to resist there was among the union leaders.
The Victorian Employers Chamber of Commerce urged Kennett to proceed with industrial relations changes and said it would target leave loadings, penalty rates and working hours in the private sector.
While the new government has refused to announce how many public sector jobs will be cut, Des Moore of the Institute of Public Affairs (a New Right think-tank which has heavily influenced Coalition policies) said before the elections that 30,000 more public sector jobs should be axed, following the loss of some 31,000 in 10 years of Labor government cutbacks, privatisation and commercialisation.
In less than a week, Kennett has begun reorganising government departments, replaced senior public servants and announced a pilot scheme to make individual state schools financially autonomous (a job- and cost-cutting move used by other Coalition governments).
Kennett has also appointed a former Workcare boss to head a special privatisation division. Top on the list for privatisation are the remaining 60% of Loy Yang B (the state's newest power station), the remaining 25% state ownership of the Portland aluminium smelter and profitable sections of the State Electricity Commission, Melbourne Water, the Gas and Fuel Corporation and the Transport Accident Commission (which handles compulsory third party insurance for motorists). In addition there is to be more contracting out and asset sales by all government departments.
While most state public servants will undoubtedly suffer through job losses and cuts in pay and conditions, incoming senior public servants are already getting big pay rises. The new top public servant, head of the department of the premier and cabinet, will be Ken Baxter, currently the second most senior public servant in NSW. Baxter is reported to have been offered a pay deal worth nearly $300,000 a year. Gude refused to confirm this, saying the details were private.
Other senior apparatchiks groomed by former NSW Premier Nick Greiner are believed to be in line for other fat cat positions under Kennett.
The situation facing the Kennett government has some similarities with that facing Greiner when he came to office in NSW. However, Kennett controls both houses of parliament and has the prospect of support from a Hewson federal government in the medium term.
The delicate balance in federal politics may prompt the ALP to hold back union resistance to Kennett. ACTU president Martin Ferguson said on October 5 that Kennett's industrial relations policies could upset "micro-reform, which is really workplace bargaining". Meanwhile a diminished Labor parliamentary caucus met on October 7 to elect a shadow cabinet. Joan Kirner remains leader, but there has been a shift in the factional balance.
Four more Socialist Left members have joined the anti-privatisation Pledge group, giving it the balance of power with eight MPs. The Pledge group has four representatives in the shadow cabinet: Pat Power, Neil Cole, Keith Hamilton and Carole Marple.
Kirner says she stayed on as leader because she was promised an end to factional infighting, but it appears the reverse has taken place, with her Socialist Left faction, the right's Labor Unity and the Pledge group all caucusing separately.
Pledge and SL members still caucus jointly as the "broad left", but there are now three major permanent factions in the Victorian ALP. Pledge members say SL numbers man and Kirner adviser Kim Carr appears to be aggressively seeking an excuse to expel more Pledge supporters form the SL.Job Cuts
Federal politics