New Public Services Minister Michaelia Cash has a lot on her plate.
Public Services Minister Eric Abetz has been shown the door while rising Liberal Party star Michaelia Cash takes the reins in the turbulent portfolio where rolling strikes and public sector rebellion have become the norm.
Ms Cash was appointed Employment Minister, Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for the Public Service and Minister for Women in the Cabinet reshuffle yesterday.
After 18 months of pay negotiations and another round of strikes, which began this week at airports, ports, service centres and call centres, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull will be hoping that Ms Cash can inject some calm and diplomacy into the public sector enterprise bargaining process.
Strikes hit Australia’s eight international airports today with two two-hour stoppages planned in the morning and the afternoon every day until September 30 at airports including Sydney, Melbourne, Adelaide, Perth and Darwin.
Workers in other departments, including Human Services, the Tax Office, Defence, Veteran Affairs, Environment, Employment and the Australian Bureau of Statistics will strike from Thursday.
There are challenging times ahead for the new minister. Four major departments – Human Services, Health, IP Australia and Veteran Affairs – rejected draft enterprise agreements earlier this month and around 88 government departments and agencies are yet to renew enterprise agreements which elapsed in June last year.
The departure of Mr Abetz to the backbenches led to the Community and Public Sector Union (CPSU) to call for a “fresh approach” to negotiations around public sector pay, entitlements and conditions.
CPSU National Secretary Nadine Flood said: “Minister Cash inherits a portfolio where the loss of 17,000 jobs has added to the pressure on services and eroded policy capability, posing a real threat to public service capacity.
“This new ministry, and Minister Cash’s past experience in the field of industrial relations, provides an opportunity for rethinking the Government’s failed bargaining policy and instead taking a modern, productive approach to public sector workplace relations.
“The ill-conceived experiment of an unfair and unrealistic policy – making agencies attempt to remove workplace rights, existing conditions and, for many workers, cut current take-home pay – has evidently failed.
“We have called on Prime Minister Turnbull to make resolving this dispute a public service and industrial relations priority for the incoming Minister, and will seek a dialogue with Senator Cash.”
On the face of it, Perth-born Ms Cash appears to have the pedigree required. She is a lawyer who specialised in industrial and employee relations, equal opportunity, occupational health and safety and unfair dismissal at Freehills law firm until entering Parliament in 2008 and she has a degree in public relations, politics and journalism.
Tony Abbott appointed Ms Cash Assistant Minister for Immigration and Border Protection and Minister Assisting the Prime Minister for Women in 2013.
The post Turnbull’s cabinet reshuffle: Abetz out, Cash in appeared first on Government News.
source Government News http://ift.tt/1V4cal8
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