Carr Government Budget good for business

by Rohan Gowland

The NSW State Budget, handed down last Tuesday, is best characterised as 
the Budget that prepares for further privatisation and a blinkered "lock 
'em up" approach to social problems.

It is also the Budget that gives extra tax cuts to business, but promises 
to hold down wages for workers. The main cut being to the payroll tax, 
which will be reduced in stages from 6.4 per cent to 6.0 per cent.

Business demands for cuts to the public service, part of the privatisation 
agenda, were met, but were not as severe as business had sought.

The Budget plans 1,400 "voluntary" redundancies in the public sector, with 
a likely loss of an additional 1,500 to 2,000 jobs from a freeze on 
recruitment.

The Government separates "government businesses" from the public sector 
figures — an indication of the Government's view that these "businesses" 
are no longer part of the public sector.

A further 500 jobs are expected to be cut from corporatised public services 
like water, electricity and the railways.

In total 3,500 to 4,000 jobs are planned to go from the public sector.

The Government promises to block public sector wage rises. Many public 
sector employees' wages are due for re-negotiation this year, including 
those of public servants, teachers, nurses and hospital workers, but the 
Government has not allocated any money for pay rises.

Matching the Federal Government's push for private health care, the State 
Government continues to squeeze the public hospital system.

The NSW Teachers' Federation says that when inflation is taken into 
account, the 1.78 per cent rise in education funding translates into a 
reduction in real terms of 0.22 per cent and that education's share of the 
budget has dropped for the second year in a row.

On the "law and order" side of things, police numbers will be increased by 
1,000 over the next four years. More police and zero tolerance policing in 
the lead up to the Olympics will see an increase in arrests and 
imprisonments.

The Budget papers estimate that an extra 7,700 prison beds will be needed 
by June 2000 and 8,400 by June 2003.

The Government will build three new prisons, it is not clear if these will 
be private prisons or not. Since the Government came to office in 1995, the 
percentage of Aboriginal prisoners has risen from 11.5 per cent to 14 per 
cent last year.

This is a budget for business and it promises an iron fist to workers' 
wages and conditions and zero tolerance for the desperate and needy.

But, this Budget is still considered "soft" by most of the business sector, 
who will continue to push for even harsher reforms.