Page 5652 - Week 17 - Thursday, 5 December 1991
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
the answer to a question which she has provided to me within the last couple of days in which she repeats statistics, which incidentally were also provided to the Estimates Committee, which show that from 1 July 1989 to 1 July 1990, for part of which year I was presiding over a budget and a program that she had put in place, the numbers of public servants on the payroll actually increased from 21,563 to 21,856. But for the period 1 July 1990 to 1 July 1991, when my budget and my programs were in place, the number of public servants on the payroll actually reduced from 21,856 to 21,414. Does Ms Follett agree now that her statement earlier was wrong? If not, how can she substantiate the assertion that staff increased during my period in the Chief Minister's position?
MS FOLLETT: Mr Speaker, obviously, I do not have with me the figures that Mr Kaine has in front of him; but Mr Kaine, during the period he was in government, made repeated assertions that he would reduce the size of the public service by some 3,000. In fact, Mr Speaker, I think it is not appropriate that those kinds of generalised assertions be made, especially when the outcomes they contain cannot be achieved. Mr Speaker, the point that I have made repeatedly is that, in the budget that I have brought down this year, we have set a target reduction in a specific area of the administration, namely, the support area. We will achieve that - and we will achieve it for budgetary reasons, not for the kinds of ideological reasons that Mr Kaine made his assertions.
I think the Liberal Party, as exemplified in Mr Kaine's statements, and now of course in Dr Hewson's statement, has made no secret of the fact that they wish to see the public sector in the ACT drastically reduced. They have made those statements repeatedly, in the face of the obvious fact that the public sector provides roughly 50 per cent of the employment in the ACT and that the wholesale reductions that both Mr Kaine and Dr Hewson speak of would be disastrous to the ACT economy.
Mr Speaker, I maintain my point that Mr Kaine had the intention of reducing the public service by some 3,000 positions.
Mr Kaine: Over five years.
MS FOLLETT: Mr Kaine now says that that was to be over five years, but he does not deny that he had the intention of reducing the ACT public sector by that number of positions. I repeat that that stands in stark contrast to the Labor action on the matter, which was budget driven, which was an action undertaken to achieve a much more streamlined and efficient public service and which was certainly not driven by the kind of ideological sabre rattling that both Mr Kaine and Dr Hewson exhibit.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .