Greens commit to uncouple government from parasitic consultants and rebuild our public sector

Media Release: Greens commit to uncouple government from parasitic consultants and rebuild our public sector

In light of the Auditor-General’s report released today entitled ‘NSW government agencies' use of consultants’, Greens NSW spokesperson for Treasury Abigail Boyd said:

“One of my first acts in the new term of parliament will be to call for a parliamentary inquiry into government use of consultants, with an aim to reorienting government’s relationship with these consultants.

“This report reveals that over $1 billion of public money has been spent on consultants in the last 5 years. What have we got to show for it? We’ve drained our public sector of talent and capacity while chaining ourselves to costly private consultants.

“Consultants and contractors are creeping their way into the core functions of government, infantilising our public sector and setting us up to be increasingly dependent in the future.

“We need to rethink the role of the state and rebuild our public sector.

“Over a decade of conservative rule in NSW, and four decades of free market ideology, has infantalised our public sector and emboldened successive governments to embark upon this mass privatisation by stealth. There has been much discourse around privatisation in this election, and it’s well overdue. This report shows that the rot runs deep, and that the Liberal-National government has sold off core functions of our government to shameless hacks.

“What use is a government that doesn’t have a vision, that doesn’t want to lead or to deliver for the people? The Liberal-National government has come to see their role as the facilitator and enabler in chief, the bottomless pit and financial backstop for a parasitic private sector that trades on swagger and bravado and denigrates the value of our hardworking public servants.”

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

NSW is missing out on tens of billions of dollars. By introducing a progressive coal royalty structure similar to the one in Queensland, we would have raised an extra $20 billion last year.

The NSW Government owns and controls, on behalf of the people of this state, the rights to the minerals and materials that naturally occur in NSW land.

Huge fossil fuel companies are only able to extract and sell these commodities with the consent of the State. It’s time they paid a fair price for that privilege.

The fossil fuel industry has made hundreds of billions of dollars out of their cosy relationship with governments. Granted permission to extract and sell coal, these large multinational fossil fuel corporations pay just over 7% in royalties back to the people of NSW – keeping the rest as mega-profits for themselves. These companies have a track record of taking more than their fair share and leaving communities suffering and stranded with poisoned groundwater, devastated landscapes and a stranded workforce when it suits their business models.

Globally, the hyper-inflation of fossil fuel prices driven by price-gouging opportunism and war profiteering from Putin’s invasion of Ukraine has delivered record windfall profits to these already obscenely wealthy corporations. In the last year, NSW coal exports totaled over $70 billion dollars, but the people of NSW will only see about 7 cents in every dollar, or about $6 billion dollars of that amount.

Rather than going toward schools, hospitals and public infrastructure, billions of dollars went into the pockets of multinational mining corporations. The Greens believe there should be more money for schools and hospitals and less for mining billionaires.

Sign our petition calling on the NSW Labor Government to increase coal royalties to invest in communities.

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Greens commit to uncouple government from parasitic consultants and rebuild our public sector

TAX SUPERPROFITS TO PAY WORKERS MORE

Sign our petition calling on the NSW Labor Government to increase coal royalties to invest in communities.

Will you sign?

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