Page 1833 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 19 August 1992
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
I will, of course, get the full detail and advise members, when I have done so, of just what is involved. But it is a matter which I have taken up with Federal colleagues and which I have resisted and will continue to resist.
As was the case with the removal of the Industry Commission from Canberra, I believe that there is not only the loss of jobs to the ACT, which is a very significant matter, but also the question of the upheaval of Canberra workers and Canberra families, and the relocation of those people in a place which perhaps they have no wish to live in. I can well understand that. I believe that anybody who has lived in Canberra would find it very difficult indeed to adjust to life in another city, particularly another major city. So there are both economic and social aspects of these problems. As I say, I will resist such moves to the best of my ability.
I would like to add, though, Madam Speaker, that under the Liberals' Fightback proposal we are faced with a mass exodus of public servants from Canberra to other centres. If and when that ever comes to pass, which I doubt, I will resist that to the utmost as well, because I think it is quite clear to most thinking members of this Assembly that the ACT needs a strong public sector as well as a strong private sector. To start slashing away at the public sector, as is proposed by Mr Kaine's colleagues, is clearly to the detriment of the whole of the ACT, our private sector as well as our public sector employment base.
MR KAINE: I ask a supplementary question, Madam Speaker. I take it from the Chief Minister's response that, despite any efforts that she makes, the current Labor Government is determined to destroy the fabric of ACT society by moving ACT jobs elsewhere and that, no matter what you say to them, it has no effect.
Mr Berry: You were asleep when they announced the budget last night - $300m.
MR KAINE: I heard the budget very well and we will be dealing with that in the matter of public importance.
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I think Mr Kaine had his tongue in his cheek in that final so-called supplementary question. I am putting as kind an interpretation on his remarks as I possibly can. Madam Speaker, no, of course the Federal Labor Government is not destroying the fabric of the ACT. It certainly does not have that as its agenda, unlike the Federal Liberal Party, who quite clearly do have that as their agenda.
Mr Berry: They have said that they will.
MS FOLLETT: They have said it, they have written it, they have a whole package known as the Fightback package which is designed to do precisely that. Madam Speaker, in closing on the supplementary question, I would just like to comment that I believe that the Federal budget, which we had handed down last night, indicates to me that in fact the Federal Labor Government is a staunch believer in the national capital and is a staunch believer in building on the public sector in the ACT. They have done that in a number of ways, not the least of which is by a very major commitment to construction projects for the public sector in the ACT.
Mr Kaine: Some jobs; maybe; some day.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .