The AMWU has reacted strongly to NSW Treasurer Eric Roozendaal’s suggestion that the role of government was to ‘get out of the way of business and let them get on with creating wealth’.
Mr Roozendaal’s comments came in the context of the NSW Job Summit last week.
AMWU New South Wales Secretary Paul Bastian said that while he didn’t doubt that the Summit was a genuine attempt to retain and create jobs in New South Wales, the comments by the Treasurer demonstrated immaturity and a complete failure to come to grips with what is going on around the world.
“Workers in NSW want the government to run this state – not the Chamber of Commerce.
“And they want to know that the Government has an economic strategy that goes somewhere beyond ‘staying out of the way’.
No one in the world – apart from George W Bush and some remnants of the Liberal party - still seriously run the line that big business should be allowed to do what ever it wants as long as it makes money.”
The summit coincided with the loss of 200 jobs at Drivetrain in Albury, where workers lost their jobs as well as their entitlements.
“Mr Roozendaal should explain to workers at Drivetrain who have lost millions of dollars in entitlements how getting government ‘out of the way’ will help them.”
Mr Bastian said that a time when governments around the world are calling for stricter regulations on corporate behaviour, the NSW Treasurer is arguing the exact opposite.
“In a week where we have witnessed examples of business creating wealth for its management by sacking its employees, the Treasurer hasn’t tuned in with public sentiment very well. We have seen workers at Telstra, Drivetrain and Pacific Brands among others losing their jobs and in some cases their entire life savings through lost entitlements. Yet the CEOs at Telstra and Pacific Brands have given themselves million dollar bonuses and payouts.
“To add insult to injury, many of the companies now sacking workers, accepted multi-million dollar grants from the Government to buy equipment that they will now use to set up businesses overseas.
“When business leaders put their hand out for tax payer funded grants there needs to be strong strings attached.”