[Greens-Media] FW: Media Release: Greens announce plans to pursue Berejiklian over Pillar privatisation

[John Kaye]

Greens announce plans to pursue Berejiklian over Pillar privatisation

Media release: 16 December 2015

Jobs in the Illawarra and services to retirees across the state are once again at risk as NSW Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian puts the superannuation front-end company Pillar on the privatisation chopping block, according to Greens NSW MP John Kaye.

Dr Kaye said: "Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian argues that this is about allowing Pillar to invest in new technologies for the future.

"She has failed to argue why this cannot be done under public ownership.

"The reality is that she wants to grab the cash at the expense of a dedicated workforce in an area of high unemployment.

"When Parliament begins next year, we will be demanding that the Treasurer produce the documents that detail the real forecasts of jobs losses.

"The first move of any new private owner will be to cut jobs to reduce costs.

"The second move will be to 'rationalise' services which inevitably means retirees will see their pensions administered on the cheap.

"Former Labor Treasurer Eric Roosendaal followed the same well-worn path but failed to find a bidder who was prepared to pay the $200 million price he wanted.

"Current Treasurer Gladys Berejiklian will no doubt do better by offering up even more room for the successful bidder to slash jobs and reduce the quality of service.

"Privatisation is lazy politics. It steals from the future and the community to give politicians like Mike Baird the cash to open up shiny new vote-winning projects.

"The  Illawarra can ill-afford yet more job losses.

"The Liberals and Nationals care little about the future of the region, having robbed it of a publicly-owned port. They then whisked the bulk of the proceeds out of the Illawarra and into projects that will help them win votes in marginal seats.

"They are busy hollowing out TAFE and are allowing jobs in the privatised energy sector to disappear.

"The Baird government should not be allowed to destroy another important public sector agency," Dr Kaye said.

Disclosure: John Kaye holds superannuation policies that are administered by Pillar. He prefers to deal with publicly-owned and administered enterprises.

For more information: John Kaye 0407 195 455

-------------------------------------------------------------------
John Kaye
Greens NSW MP

P: (02) 9230 2668 | F: facebook.com/john.kaye.mlc<http://www.facebook.com/john.kaye.mlc> | T: @johnkgreens<twitter.com/johnkgreens> | W: www.johnkaye.org.au<http://www.johnkaye.org.au>
Mail: Parliament House, Macquarie Street, Sydney, NSW 2000

This office pays respect to the Gadigal and the other Aboriginal peoples of NSW and acknowledges their ownership of this land.

John Kaye's office is proudly 100% unionised and union-active.

This email is solely for the named addressee and may be confidential. You should only read, disclose, transmit, copy, distribute, act in reliance on or commercialise the contents if you are authorised to do so. If you are not the intended recipient of this email, please notify the sender by email immediately and then destroy any copy of this message. Except where otherwise specifically stated, views expressed in this e-mail are those of the individual sender.
[Description: MC900437266[1]]  Please consider the environment before printing this email.