CPSU Federal Office

For 10 years unions across the world have been fighting to place decent work at the centre of government policies, to bring back economic growth that puts people first – people over profit. 

At the recent Prison Officers Association of Australasia conference in Auckland the POAA Executive decided to make a donation to a Tasmanian organisation called ‘Speak Up – Stay ChatTY’.  Stay ChatTY promotes positive mental health and prevent suicide by normalising conversations about mental health and encouraging people to seek help when they need it. They are a not-for-profit.  Our delegate from Tassie to POAA Jason Buckley and CPSU Federal President Tom Lynch presented a cheque to Mitch McPherson today.

Workplace delegates from all unions gathered in Melbourne as part of our national Change the Rules Campaign to endorse a massive rally 'Australia Needs a Pay Rise' on Tuesday 23rd October. 

Sally McManus tells the delegates gathered about the workers she’s met around the country who’ve had cop a wage freeze while corporate profits are going through the roof. The rules are broken. Australia needs a pay rise.

Over a thousand prison officers walked off the job today and most marched on Parliament House demanding the South Australian government reverse its decision to privatise the Adelaide Remand Centre while simultaneous protests were held in Murray Bridge Port Augusta and Port Lincoln

Despite publicly stating before the election that "privatisation was not on his agenda" and "the best chance of growing public service numbers was under the Liberals", the new South Australian Government has announced it will waste $170 million in redundancies to save $280 million by cutting public service worker numbers by more than 4,000 jobs over the next four years and privatise pathology, radiology and prisoner remand services sparking widespread spontaneous protests.

CPSU is proud to celebrate Child Protection Week and give recognition to the valuable and challenging work of our members across Australia by launching our inaugural CPSU Child Protection awards to be bestowed on a Child Protection union delegate this week. 

Union members are taking the message into the community – Australia needs a pay rise.  Pay rises are not keeping up with the cost of living because the system is out of balance.  We need to change the rules so working people have the bargaining power to win their fair share.

The surge in prisoner numbers has been a threat to the health and safety of officers and ancillary staff working in the system.

All jurisdictions reported that the biggest impact on availability of beds was changes to sentencing laws, particularly Victoria and Tasmania where suspended sentences have been abolished, access to bail has been tightened and Tasmania reports that changes are going through Parliament now that will make access to remissions harder therefore further exacerbating the lack of available beds.

A fraud has been perpetrated on ordinary people, whether it be a person working for a Government service, or the community that uses a now privatised/corporatised service.  For the past 25-30 years we, as a nation, have had to deal with a political class (both major parties) who have felt that the way to economic prosperity for our respective States, or our Nation, was to outsource, privatise and downsize the public sector.  It has been done (and continues to be done), in the mistaken belief, that “trickle down” economics is good for everyone, from the highest paid to the lowest.

Save the Date in your city (location details tbc): July 8 in Sydney, July 13 in Brisbane and July 15 in Melbourne.

Amid Federal Budget cuts of a further $83.7 million in funding to the ABC, and in the wake of the Liberal Party Federal Council vote, CPSU and MEAA are joining with Friends of the ABC to hold public protest rallies in defence of the ABC.