Hearing to highlight privatisation pitfalls

The Community and Public Sector Union/Civil Service Association has questioned the Federal Government’s Commission of Audit.

While the details of the audit are yet to be released by Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey a Senate Inquiry will be held in Perth this morning.

CPSU/CSA branch secretary Toni Walkington is one of the key figures invited to address the hearing.

Ms Walkington will be giving evidence on the impact of Commonwealth funding decisions and the policy decisions around the delivery of State Government services.

“There are major gaps in funding and we need to highlight the consequences of these gaps,” Ms Walkington said.

“The Barnett Government has decreased its funding in vocational education training at a time when the Federal Government has increased its funding, yet there is a massive funding shortfall for public-run services here in WA.

“What has happened is the private sector has taken over a lot of the courses and the students are now paying up to three times the fees they were paying last year.

“An increase in course fees will mean that the number of people participating in these courses will reduce significantly leading to a shortfall of trained personnel in some industries.”

Ms Walkington said this was a major concern at a time of high youth unemployment.

She will also highlight the pitfalls of privatising core public services such as the maintenance of public housing stock, vehicle licensing and Corrective Services functions.

“Over the last few years we have seen many examples of services being compromised when profit-driven companies get involved and change the scope of how services should be delivered and measured.”

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