- The Guardian
- Issue #2197
Councils from every State and Territory have united with unions representing the entire Local Government sector to warn the Federal Parliament of a looming financial crisis that threatens the very survival of councils.
At the National General Assembly of Local Government last week in Canberra, a letter calling attention to the crisis was signed by all State and Territory Associations representing more than 500 councils from across Australia and sent to the Speaker of the Parliament as well as every MP and Senator.
Union leaders representing the whole Australian Local Government workforce joined with the Presidents of State and Territory Local Government Associations in a joint media conference to demand fairer funding for the sector.
This joint call to increase Commonwealth Financial Assistance Grants to 1 per cent of federal taxation revenue comes as a growing number of regional councils face severe financial pressures that threaten basic services.
“Today mayors from every corner of the continent are joining with unions representing the whole Local Government workforce to say this crisis in funding for councils must be addressed,” Local Government NSW President, Mayor Darcy Byrne, said.
“In regional communities in particular there is simply not enough funding for basic services to be maintained. That’s why we have taken this unprecedented step to force the Parliament to act on this crisis.
National Secretary of the Australian Services Union, Emeline Gaske, has highlighted the impact the crisis will have on the Local Government workforce.
“Council workers keep Australian communities running every single day,” Gaske said.
“They collect our bins, run our libraries, maintain our roads, and support communities through floods and fires. They do this work professionally and with commitment, but they need councils that are properly resourced to back them up.”
In NSW alone, there are 50,000 council workers serving the local communities.
General Secretary of the United Services Union, Graeme Kelly said the level of assistance from the Commonwealth has been declining steadily.
“The Federal Government has watched Financial Assistance Grants fall from 1 per cent of Commonwealth taxation revenue to barely half that over thirty years. That decline has real consequences for the workers and communities who depend on council services. Restoring the 1% benchmark is the single most important thing Canberra can do for local government,” Kelly said.
PARASITE OF THE WEEK: Bendigo Bank (again). The Finance Sector Union (FSU) has urged Bendigo Bank to prioritise reskilling workers over redundancies as the bank continues to cull its Australian operations.
Workers have been told that some functions performed in the Customer Enablement Business and Agribusiness Lending Operations department will now be run by global tech giant Genpact. The FSU understands up to 80 workers could lose their jobs as a result.
The union is also concerned that some functions of the Financial Crime Risk area have been outsourced to Genpact although the bank claims that the area will receive a net increase of 33 workers as a result.
The union believes that this presents an opportunity for Bendigo Bank to reskill employees affected by the restructure. For workers who choose to, Bendigo should provide upskilling and development to transfer them into these Financial Crime roles instead of facing the prospect of having no job.
The bank has not been shy about its ambition to shrink its Australian workforce. Bendigo announced a partnership with Genpact and Infosys in April that saw some staff forced to work for Infosys on inferior contracts and left up to 1,000 other employees uncertain about whether their jobs will be outsourced too.
The FSU has met with affected staff to hear their concerns and provide advice. FSU National Secretary Julia Angrisano said: “Every time an Australian job is lost there is an economic and social impact that affects us all. Banks don’t offshore or outsource to improve efficiency; they do it for profit.”
