{"id":132453,"date":"2016-01-22T17:06:24","date_gmt":"2016-01-22T07:06:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/?p=132453"},"modified":"2020-09-24T11:34:54","modified_gmt":"2020-09-24T01:34:54","slug":"lnp-backs-unions-campaign-over-jobs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/southburnett.com.au\/news2\/2016\/01\/22\/lnp-backs-unions-campaign-over-jobs\/","title":{"rendered":"LNP Backs Union’s Campaign Over Jobs"},"content":{"rendered":"
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ETU State Organisers Daniel Bessell, Jason Young and Stuart Traill, media officer Andrew Irvine and Not4Sale organiser Lara Watson protesting against the LNP in Kingaroy last year … now the LNP Opposition is quizzing the Labor Government in support of the same union<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Andrew<\/a>
Shadow Energy Minister Andrew Powell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

January 22, 2016<\/strong><\/p>\n

Energy Minister Mark Bailey must address community concerns over potential job cuts at Ergon Energy, according to the LNP.<\/p>\n

Shadow Energy Minister Andrew Powell said Ergon workers had walked off the job in Bundaberg, citing fears of job losses and a wind-back in network maintenance as major issues.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis latest strike in Bundaberg follows a similar walkout in Atherton last week, where the same issues were raised,\u201d Mr Powell said.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Palaszczuk Labor Government must be held to the commitment they made to protect frontline workers.<\/p>\n

\u201cMinister Bailey had previously publicly guaranteed job security for workers at State-owned electricity companies but has now gone to ground.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s concerning for workers and for the community that we\u2019re hearing reports 13 Ergon jobs are to be cut from the Fraser-Burnett region alone, but Minister Bailey remains silent.<\/p>\n

\u201cQueensland has so much potential but this kind of sloppy administration from Labor is holding our state back.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr Powell said the LNP was also concerned over reports of cuts to crucial maintenance programs at Ergon.<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cThe Palaszczuk Labor Government has loaded up Ergon with the State\u2019s debt and is stripping all profits out of the company to fill their Budget black hole,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve always feared that these short-sighted decisions could impact network safety and reliability in the future.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Energy Minister\u2019s old union even describes the current situation at Ergon as \u2018dangerous\u2019 and \u2018unsafe\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese are very serious claims and more than 733,000 Ergon customers and thousands of employees deserve an upfront response from Energy Minister Mark Bailey on this issue.\u201d<\/p>\n

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