South Australian Labor conference gives green light for austerity measures

[Hannah Bell]

Buoyed by their victory at the South Australian Labor Party conference on November 27, Premier Mike Rann and Treasurer Kevin Foley have contemptuously declared that they intend to proceed with their plans to axe nearly 4,000 public sector jobs, slash services, abolish job security and scrap long service entitlements and holiday leave loadings...

Rann and Foley arrived at the conference venue, the Adelaide Convention Centre, under police guard. They were ushered in amid jeers and heckling from protesters. Throughout the meeting, Rann was under the protection of seven armed police officers and two plain-clothes security men. The police protection of Rann and Foley is an indication of the methods that the Labor government is prepared to use against any resistance to its plans...

When the South Australian budget measures were first announced in September, the Australian demanded they become the starting point for even deeper cuts across the country by state governments, which are responsible for most frontline education, health and social services. The newspaper reported that the states’ total public debts would rise by 52 percent, to $243.2 billion, by 2014. The Australian declared that state governments must stop their “debt binge”.


http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/dec2010/saus-d08.shtml