By JONATHON HOWARD
THE Electrical Trades Union has accused the LNP State Government of betraying the bush by rushing to privatise the electricity industry amid concerns that the Ergon Energy’s Stanthorpe depot could be the next to close.
Energy Minister Mark McArdle confirmed the worst kept secret last week with more than 1200 jobs cut from state-owned supply companies Ergon (690), Energex (460) and Powerlink (63) in the past year.
State Organiser Stuart Traill said the figures confirmed what the union had been saying since last year that the State Government was clearing the decks in readiness for a fire sale and in the process they were leaving regional communities exposed to service cuts and dangerous neglect.
The union also rejected the assertion by Mr McArdle that no blue collar jobs had been lost.
“That’s rubbish and McArdle knows it, figures show that more than 40 technical jobs were slashed in Energex and 250 in Ergon, including 70 in cyclone-prone Far North Queensland,” Mr Traill said.
“The more than 1200 jobs does not include the latest proposals to cut hundreds more jobs with the LNPs push to shut down up to 40 regional Ergon depots in the bush and their intention to privatise more than 170 jobs connected to 33 remote power stations up for sale,” Mr Traill said.
“The people of Queensland and in particular the people in regional and remote areas have a right to know, how the loss of frontline staff will affect their service and response times particularly in times of natural disaster?
“We believe it would be dishonest of the Government to say it can guarantee the same level of service and we ask which communities will be left isolated due to these irresponsible cuts,” he said.
Mr Traill repeated the union’s vow to fight for every job and called on regional communities to stand up and fight back against the State Government’s attack on their jobs, their assets and their communities.
“Throw into the mix jobs losses in the South Burnett area following the decisions by Government-owned generator Stanwell to slash its Tarong workforce by 120 since October last year and you have a clear picture of a Government that doesn’t care about the bush,” he said.
“Every job lost has a knock on effect – families, schools, hospitals, businesses and social infrastructure are all affected.
“We ask communities to support the Not4Sale campaign and write to their local MP,” Mr Traill said.
“The LNP continue to hide behind their puppet boards, saying the boards make the decisions, well we know for a fact they are directing boards to cut costs and “right size” their organisations,” he said.
“FOI information received earlier this year shows quite clearly Government ministers’ directed state-owned electricity providers Ergon and Energex to cut costs by 10 per cent.”
“The buck stops with the LNP, the Premier, the Energy Minister, the Treasurer and every one of the other 71 LNP MPs.”
