Under pressure from the Greens in Parliament today the Premier was forced to concede the government’s offer to the public sector unions is still open, but a guarantee that the offer will be formally submitted to the unions involved and the Tasmanian Industrial Commission (TIC) is still needed, Greens Leader Kim Booth MP said today.
“By back-flipping today and stating the offer is still open to the unions, is an admission by the Premier that the government has been caught out and that no formal offer was presented to, received or rejected by, the unions for consideration during the TIC’s hearings on Monday,” Mr Booth said.
“However, for this offer to be genuine the Premier must ensure the same mistakes made, or games played, on Monday are not repeated.”
“Mr Hodgman needs to ensure a formal offer with all relevant costings is submitted to the appropriate parties direct, and the Industrial Commission.”
“The Premier must also publicly overturn Peter Gutwein’s threat to proceed with public sector worker sackings and place a hold on any job cuts, to allow for genuine good-faith negotiations to occur around this offer once it is formally submitted.”
“But lets be clear, there can be no more smoke and mirrors. If the government’s offer is real, then it is their responsibility to formally submit it to the actual parties before the TIC, and to obtain formal acknowledgement of receipt.”
“Sending an email to the government’s negotiator, which is basically sending an email to themselves, is not evidence that a formal offer was submitted, or received, by other parties. Making it contingent upon the position of another organisation which was not party to the application being considered by the TIC is either deliberately disingenuous or plain incompetent.”
“The Premier’s move to reinstate the government’s offer, is a clear admission they know they are in trouble, and that no formal offer was in fact delivered, which now raises serious concerns over whether Parliament was misled on this matter,” Mr Booth said.