4th September 2007Peter Beattie’s stacking of council transition committees with union
hacks had nothing to do with looking after local communities but
everything to do with delivering to union bosses, the State Coalition
said today.
Coalition Leader Jeff Seeney questioned Mr Beattie in State Parliament
this morning why un-elected unionists were being handed unprecedented
power in determining the future of Queensland communities.
Referring to Labor’s guidelines released last week for the local
government transition committees to oversee amalgamations, Mr Seeney
asked the Premier why un-elected unionists were being handed so much
power.
“I refer to the role of unelected trade union officials on these
committees where, in some cases, despite a low level of union membership
in the (council) workforce, union officials constitute almost half the
committees and are in a position to determine the outcome of major
decisions,” Mr Seeney asked.
“Mr Beattie is bowing to his powerful union mates, including AWU boss
Bill Ludwig, and ignoring the wishes of the overwhelming majority of
Queenslanders who are totally opposed to Labor’s forced mergers.
“Mr Beattie couldn’t care less about council workers. All he’s
interested in is handing power to his union mates. He’s not interested
in looking after the interests of our communities, our councils and
their workers.
“Mr Beattie has done his best to deny Queensland communities a say on
their local communities while he’s bent over backwards to stack the
transmission committees with un-elected union hacks.
“Mr Beattie’s agenda is not about building stronger councils and
communities, it’s about building stronger trade unions and entrenching
union power in council workforces.
“That’s why Bill Ludwig has been so silent on the thousands of local
jobs that Mr Beattie is destroying.
“This is a shameless grab for power to shore up the flow of money from
council workers’ pay packets to Bill Ludwig’s office.”
Media Contact – Jeff Popp 0438 153 857