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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 4 Hansard (16 April) . . Page.. 951 ..

MR WOOD (continuing):

The claim was made, or appeared to be made, that some 18,000 Commonwealth public servants had been lost from the ACT. A document was tabled, and I guess the figures add up to 18,000 people moving out of the Public Service. But the heading on this document that was tabled says, "Separations of Permanent Staff, Retrenchments". There is no indication that it is the ACT. We have only a brief page here - I do not have the whole document - but it is pretty clearly retrenchments from the Commonwealth Public Service Australia-wide.

Mr Hird: So, you agree that 18,000 went Australia-wide?

MR WOOD: No question. The whole inference, however, was that there were 18,000 fewer public servants in Canberra as a result of the Federal Government. That was the complete inference, and was deliberately designed to mislead this Assembly. Nor did she indicate the contra part of this - the number of people who had been employed in the Commonwealth Public Service in that time. The heading here is clearly "Retrenchments". What about new employment, the people who come into the Commonwealth Public Service? My colleagues have gone back to 1983, the era of the Hawke and Keating governments, and quoted a substantial increase in the number of bureaucrats.

Let me quote the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures for just the last three years for Canberra: From early 1992 to early 1993, there were 2,500 more Commonwealth public servants employed in Canberra. The Chief Minister has been deliberately misleading this Assembly. There are more Commonwealth public servants in Canberra now, on my ABS figures, than there were three years ago. So her figures and the whole import of what has been given from that side of the house are wrong.

Mrs Carnell: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: It seems that Mr Wood is suggesting that I in some way misled the Assembly. I would like him to withdraw that.

MR WOOD: I will withdraw it, and I will leave the speaking to the documents. They are unmistakable.

Mrs Carnell: That is right. There were 18,000 redundancies.

MR WOOD: Say that again.

Mrs Carnell: There were 18,000 redundancies.

MR WOOD: In Canberra?

Mrs Carnell: No; I never said "in Canberra".

MR WOOD: But you inferred that. You did not say "across Australia". The Chief Minister at no time said "across Australia", and she did not indicate that it could be offset by new positions, new employment, in the ACT or the Commonwealth generally. The documents are there and they speak for themselves.

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