UNE can pay its own way and has positive operating cash flow. The point of my earlier paper was to argue that UNE management's claim that there was no 'capacity to pay' higher salaries was not sustainable. The real issue is for UNE management to determine priorities for expenditure of UNE budget and to acknowledge that this is the case. The report I prepared for NTEU focussed on cash flows. The NTEU and UNE EB teams had a long discussion about what were relevant financial indicators of 'capacity to pay' salary increases.
Salaries involve cash outflows.
This position was acknowledged in section 2 of my report dated 12 April. The report I prepared for NTEU took this focus and demonstrated that over the past 4 years UNE had a positive cash flow from operating activities. This measure indicates that UNE has had a 'capacity to pay'. I stated that 'if UNE maintains its current financial policies and practices then it can be expected that UNE would have a capacity to pay salary increases'. The evidence on which my opinion was based has not been challenged by Graeme Dennehy, ie that UNE has a track record of positive cash flows from operations.