Public service union boss Toni Walkington warned yesterday that the Barnett Government's plan to privatise government services would result in the private sector picking up profitable areas while leaving the State to deal with intractable problems.
Colin Barnett confirmed the Government's intention to transfer a wide range of public services to the non-government sector in line with recommendations from the economic audit review.
But Ms Walkington said the Government was trying to save money on the back of lower wages in the not-for-profit sector and warned business would be out to cherry-pick services.
"The only way that the not-for-profits or private sector can provide the same quality of service as the current service or improve on that is to find savings somewhere," she said.
The Community and Public Sector Union wrote to the Premier seeking a meeting about the Government's plans to use private organisations to deliver government services to ensure that "working families don't end up being the cost absorber".
Mr Barnett pointed to successes in disability services, where 59 per cent or $257.7 million of taxpayers' money is administered by private organisations, as a model the Government would like to expand into other areas, including mental health and public housing. "This is not privatisation, it's not a radical change of policy, it's just Government working with committed professionals, well established non-government organisations to make taxpayers money go further and provide better services on the ground," he said.
WA Council of Social Service chief Sue Ash said the welfare sector could not cope if the Government pulled out of service delivery without providing sufficient funds to the participating organisations to fill the gap.
"We're hearing it could be over 200 jobs coming out of the public service in mental health and that would be a huge additional gap in an area where some of the services are very expensive," Ms Ash said.
Ms Walkington said splitting tasks between private and public service providers resulted in disjointed and dysfunctional service delivery.
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6 Comments
Can I buy the Police please Mr Barnett? Then I could use them to make a profit. I wouldn't have time to care about law and order though, I would be too busy ensuring a return for the shareholders.
This stupid attitude of politicians to save money NOW without regard for the consequences needs to be enforcibly changed. It should also be feasible to reduce the number of politicians and ministers as a result of reducing their workload if they persist in offloading their responsibilities.
It has always been a myth perpetrated by Liberal Governments that the private sector is cheaper and more efficient than the Public Service. In fact it doubles the cost and reduces efficiency. Firstly private enterprise has to make a profit - they used to be happy with 10% but now they look for 50%. Secondly they cut corners with a resultant lowering of standards - you only have to look at the private cleaning services in hospitals to see why infection rates are higher. And of course it's the public that has to suffer in order to pay for bringing up standards. Consider the police service - they lose funding, which means reduction of services which result in more crime, more prisoners, overloaded courts, more lawyers and judges, higher insurance premiums, more security required for homes, more private security firms proliferating (with no authority to act as police can) - this is all "hidden" cost which places more burden on the public - most of it quite unnecessary if the police had the funding and back to do the job properly in the first place.
I would have thought over the past two decades any form of privatisation of the public sector has been fraught with compromise and eventual expense to tax payers in the form of additional fees and charges and huge social costs. The cost of the public sector is a reflection of the Government of the day. Deficits and poor services are not the fault of the public sector they are the direct result of Government decision making. If the current Government wants to control the budget it needs to cease the undemocratic and costly "Royalties to Regions" fiasco. This is not reality this is blackmail and we as tax payers are footing the bill and public servants are being used as scapegoats. This Government needs to dig deep get some balls and respect the public sector . Handing it over to private enterpise is at best a short term solution. Private enterprises reason for existence is to make a profit, vote for huge bonuses and keep there shareholders happy ...nothing to do with the good of the community or benefits to the community !! As a tax payer I want to see my taxes invested back into the community not lining the pockets of private enterpise gigalos whose sole ambition is to fleece as much tax payers money out of weak government as they possibly can. GET YOU HOUSE IN ORDER Mr BARNETT!!! Don't use the public sector as a scapegoat
yep privatising government responsibilities has worked real well. G4S transporting prisoners, electricity privatised - how many millions have the government poured into these to keep them operating? All privatising does is hide the true cost to the taxpayers. Instead of the money being paid to public servants it gets paid to private organisations.
To the Western Australian Public Sector Union you need to realisw that Colin Barnett needs tto pivitise the WA Pulic Service because that will save mone to the WEstern Australia Economy & Further more yoiu need to see that ythe Government annot own anything because they stuff up everything.