Today, the Commissioner for Public Employment will pursue an s240 application for the Fair Work Commission to deal with the NTPS Enterprise Agreement (2025-2028) bargaining dispute.
I acknowledge the outcome of this week's vote, and I am disappointed the Government's offer here was voted down at a time when other Territorians are doing it tough with cost-of-living pressures.
The 3% a year pay rise for 4 years, compounding to 12.55% over the life of the agreement, was a generous offer well above Darwin Consumer Price Index here at 1.6% that protects job security, provides real wage growth, and strengthened flexible workplace arrangements.
We value our public service and thank them for their contribution to delivering services in the Northern Territory.
Labor's mismanagement of the Territory's finances and ballooning project costs have our debt on a trajectory towards $17 billion.
Labor inherited $1.7 billion in debt in 2016, and in 8 years of chaos managed to put us on the path to $17 billion in debt!
It is important to note, public sector wages account for 41% of the NT Government's budget expenditure.
I put to the Unions, what did you do when the former Labor Government froze public sector wages, why didn't you go in and fight for them then?
If the Unions want to blame anyone for failing to secure a pay rise, I suggest they speak to their Labor mates who wrecked the economy and left the CLP a fiscal mess to clean up.
