12 September 2002

Email to all Members of the Legislative Assembly

Review of Public Sector Enterprise Bargaining and the Public Interest

I wish to submit for your consideration that it is not in the public interest for this Review to be conducted behind closed doors, and without soliciting public submissions.   

A copy of an email to the Premier is reproduced below, which argues this point in more detail.  

Moreover the impasse which developed in relation to enterprise bargaining in Queensland seemed to be a symptom of the unsatisfactory state of public administration and finance in Queensland to which I referred in numerous previous emails (eg see documents on my web-site dated 5 May 2002 ; 17 December 2001; 24 July 2001; 15 March 2001; and earlier).  

Dear Mr Beattie,  

I refer to a response from your Chief of Staff (10 September 2002 - your ref 9127/AC/EP) in relation to my inquiry of 8 August about arrangements being made for public submissions to the Review of Public Sector Enterprise Bargaining. He noted that public submissions are not being sought, and that the review process is to be conducted in consultation with 'key participants in enterprise bargaining in the state public sector'.  

Under these circumstances I appreciate his action in forwarding a copy of my correspondence and of the article on my web-site [which would have been the basis of my submission if one had been permitted] to the review team.  

HOWEVER, it is unsatisfactory that public submissions are not being sought, as there seem to be important public interests which may not be considered or protected by a closed negotiation amongst insiders.  About the Review of Public Sector Enterprise Bargaining (on my web-site) suggests that problems are likely because:

• the intent of the Hawke / Wran proposals for reform of the ALP appears to be to increase direct union input into the ALP's policy processes. If such an arrangement were made behind closed doors as a means of resolving Queensland's enterprise bargaining impasse (ie if union officials secretly gain more influence within the ALP as a trade off for accepting that the government can not afford to meet union members' wage demands), this would be likely to create problems for Queensland Government at a future time when the ALP is not in power; and
• effective means of enterprise bargaining (ie of negotiations between employee representatives and management simultaneously about improving an organisation's performance and about employee remuneration) appear to be vital for the future flexibility and productive effectiveness of Queensland's economy.  As the review seems to have been asked to suggest how to do away with enterprise bargaining altogether in the public sector (ie examine quite different models), it is likely to have much broader implications for the public interest generally.