By Dave Riley
BRISBANE — Queenslanders should brace themselves for continued government spending cuts. With the state budget not due to be brought down until September, already the razors are out. After 44 months in office, the Goss government has turned vicious and nasty.
Recently announced cuts included closing 2872 km of rail lines — 30% of the state rail system — and shedding 550 jobs to save $40 million; increasing secondary school sizes and other education belt-
tightening to save $14.3 million; and merging two Brisbane hospitals and changing nursing practices to save $15 million.
The cuts provoked an explosion of popular anger. With unions and country townspeople rallying against him, Goss announced a rethink on some of the line closures but remains adamant that $40 million in savings will still have to be bled from the rail network. Announced cuts in health and education will proceed.
The cutbacks have been blamed on the shortfall in federal government grants to the state. After the recent Premiers' Conference, Goss railed against Canberra and the southern states, accusing them of a "get Queensland" mentality. However, the government was making plans to cut services months before the conference.
Economist David Watson has pointed out that in all likelihood the combined health and general grants from the Commonwealth will actually increase by $170 million over the next year. Goss won't hear of it. Labor is set on hacking $115 million from the state budget and blaming the federal government for it.
As Teachers Union president Mary Kelly has pointed out, the shortfall is less than 1% of the total state budget, and does not justify cuts of essential services. Peter Morley, writing in the Courier Mail, called the government's cost-cutting proposals an "over-reaction" to a "flea bite".
People would be well advised to expect a much broader agenda from state government razor gangs. The level of services provided for in all areas of state budget expenditure (except education) is already the lowest of any of the states.
In figures established by the Queensland Council of Social Services, the government spends $78 per person on welfare. The national average is $138. Per capita, the government spends less on its citizens than any other state. At these levels, QCSS complains that it is not good enough to cut services every time there is a budget shortfall. "This year the loser seems to be rural Queensland", says its director Peter Walsh. "The question is: What will be next?"
Rail workers face the brunt of the current round of cuts. As the premier himself pointed out, the previous National Party government had already closed 58 lines and retrenched more than 8000 workers. The fact that Labor rather than the Nationals does it now hasn't made it any easier for the 550 who could face the loss of their jobs or the rural communities who depend on rail for cartage.
Documents obtained by the Public Transport Union indicate that an extra 4600 retrenchments in the next five years are being considered by Queensland Rail. After turning a $108 million operating loss into an $8 million surplus last year, Queensland Rail is forging a lean and profitable rail network without regard to public service.
The proposal to close the urban Pinkenba line to passenger traffic and the new Citytrain timetable are also geared to cost cutting. "In effect", says Yvonne Bell of the Sunshine Coast Commuters Association, "the new timetable is about using fewer trains".
Nonetheless, the government is to proceed with its plan to build a $75 dual gauge rail line from Dutton Park to the port of Brisbane. The line, which the local Freight Action Group calls "economically dubious", is to take two years to build and carry up to 46 freight trains per day.
In education cost-cutting will also take a heavy toll.
With 11% of school classes already oversized, the government's proposed staffing ratios will at least double the number of oversized classes. Some schools will close, and teachers will be encouraged to retire early.
"The potential loss of 500-600 secondary teachers is a body blow to quality education", writes Mary Kelly in her union's journal.
"There are now 8,000 unemployed teachers in Queensland and this enforced redundancy under the cute euphemism of increasing class sizes will just exacerbate what is already a serious problem", she told the Courier Mail. Already there have been proposals to drop maths II classes from some schools.
The merging of the administrations of the Queen Elizabeth II and Princess Alexandra hospitals on Brisbane's southside is also geared to job shedding.
Some trade unions, smarting under the rationalist economics of the Goss bureaucracy, have made submissions to the government calling for new and heavier taxes to ease the burden on the public sector.
With the lowest per capita revenue of any state, treasury income could be increased by a variety of selective government levies. While public services are being slashed, Queensland industrial stocks have out-
performed their counterparts in other states. The newly created Wilson HTM Index — a weighted index of the top 30 Queensland industrial companies — has almost doubled since June 1990, while the national industrial market has increased by only 10%.
In contrast, unemployment rose again here in June on average by 160 jobless per day. Some 156,000 Queenslanders are currently unemployed in a state whose gross product rose by twice that of the national average.
Meanwhile, this government which spends $60 million on consultancy services each year, has run up a loss of $1 million in its own parliamentary dining room and bar. Whether the members of parliament are to forgo their liquid lunches, as the rural residents must relinquish their rail lines, remains to be
seen.