❓ Ms. Davies questions the Premier about a potential breach of the government's wages policy in the public sector, referencing a news article. The Premier acknowledges the question but deflects, highlighting benefits provided to public servants while affirming the existing wages policy.
AnsweredQoN 457Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
PUBLIC SECTOR —
GOVERNMENT WAGES POLICY
457. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
I refer to a 14 June article in Business
News Western Australia that ran under the heading ''Cracks emerge in
state pay policy''.
(1) Can the
Premier confirm that a deal has been offered to employees in the public sector
that includes new entitlements such as discounted public transport, an extra
holiday, superannuation during unpaid parental leave, and cultural leave for
Aboriginal employees?
(2) Does the
Premier agree with the Community and Public Sector Union–Civil Service
Association of WA that the conditions that have been offered break the
government's wages policy, as outlined in that article?
GOVERNMENT WAGES POLICY
457. Ms M.J. DAVIES to the Premier:
I refer to a 14 June article in Business
News Western Australia that ran under the heading ''Cracks emerge in
state pay policy''.
(1) Can the
Premier confirm that a deal has been offered to employees in the public sector
that includes new entitlements such as discounted public transport, an extra
holiday, superannuation during unpaid parental leave, and cultural leave for
Aboriginal employees?
(2) Does the
Premier agree with the Community and Public Sector Union–Civil Service
Association of WA that the conditions that have been offered break the
government's wages policy, as outlined in that article?
AnswerView source ↗
(1)–(2) I
am unaware of the article to which the member is referring. She can hold it up,
but I cannot read it from here. I am sorry; I know that members opposite think
I have super-vision, but I unfortunately do not.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members! A bit
of discipline, please.
Ms M.J. Davies : I am happy to
give you a copy.
Mr M. McGOWAN : I cannot read
it while I am standing here, but I can comment on the member's
question.
I appreciate the work that our
public servants across the state do. We have not had forced redundancies. We
have provided domestic violence leave for our public sector workforce, and we
have increased the payouts to the families of those killed in the workplace
across Western Australia—in fact, doubled them. Public sector workers
are the beneficiaries of that. We have also increased the prospects of
permanency for public sector workers who might be casual or part-time, and many
public servants have been the beneficiaries of that. Our $1 000 wages policy
continues and will remain in place for four years. As members know, there is a wages
freeze for members of Parliament, judges and senior public servants. I think the
$1 000 wages policy is fair. We have provided an offer to the public servants
of Western Australia that includes some other longstanding benefits that they
were seeking. I think that is a reasonable way of dealing with this issue in
straitened financial times.
am unaware of the article to which the member is referring. She can hold it up,
but I cannot read it from here. I am sorry; I know that members opposite think
I have super-vision, but I unfortunately do not.
Several members interjected.
The SPEAKER : Members! A bit
of discipline, please.
Ms M.J. Davies : I am happy to
give you a copy.
Mr M. McGOWAN : I cannot read
it while I am standing here, but I can comment on the member's
question.
I appreciate the work that our
public servants across the state do. We have not had forced redundancies. We
have provided domestic violence leave for our public sector workforce, and we
have increased the payouts to the families of those killed in the workplace
across Western Australia—in fact, doubled them. Public sector workers
are the beneficiaries of that. We have also increased the prospects of
permanency for public sector workers who might be casual or part-time, and many
public servants have been the beneficiaries of that. Our $1 000 wages policy
continues and will remain in place for four years. As members know, there is a wages
freeze for members of Parliament, judges and senior public servants. I think the
$1 000 wages policy is fair. We have provided an offer to the public servants
of Western Australia that includes some other longstanding benefits that they
were seeking. I think that is a reasonable way of dealing with this issue in
straitened financial times.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.