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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (28 August) . . Page.. 2657 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

Mr Speaker, this is a bandaid measure, whichever way you cut it. We heard this morning that the Chief Minister wholeheartedly supports John Howard's contracting out policies and economic policies generally.

Mrs Carnell: Just like you supported selling Qantas.

MR WHITECROSS: Mrs Carnell says, "Just like you support selling Qantas". Actually I do not support selling Qantas. If anyone had bothered to ask me, I would have said I did not support it. But Mrs Carnell was asked whether she supported John Howard's economic policies and she said, "Yes". So, Mr Speaker, I do not think Mrs Carnell can draw that parallel at all.

Mr Berry: Solidly.

MR WHITECROSS: Solidly. Thank you. Not only did she say, "Yes"; she said, "Yes, I support them solidly". Mr Speaker, those policies, whichever way you cut it, are bad news for Canberra. We have already seen contracts awarded last month which resulted in work going to a government-owned company in New Zealand and a government-owned company in New South Wales, plus a couple of private companies not in Canberra. That is the real story of contracting out, Mr Speaker - jobs leaving Canberra.

While the Howard Liberal Government cannot recognise the capacity of the public sector to provide an efficient, quality product, the reality is that the New South Wales Government and the New Zealand Government, through their government-owned entities, were able to pick up the work because they delivered on an efficient basis. Because of their ideological hang-ups, instead of figuring out how they were going to make an Australian government-owned entity operate efficiently and competitively and produce a good product, in the best interests of the Australian community, they have chosen to give the work away to people in the private sector, to a New Zealand government-owned entity and to a New South Wales government-owned entity.

I think the ideological barrenness of the Howard Government's approach is pretty evident. I would not expect those opposite to recognise that, because it is their own policy as well. They have shown, in their own contracting out, a similar lack of regard for the value of the Public Service and the public sector, and the capacity of the Public Service and the public sector to do things well. The economic policies of Mrs Carnell's colleagues in the Federal Liberal Government, her preferred government for Australia, whose economic policies she solidly supports, are undeniably bad for Canberra. Canberrans must have choked on their cornflakes this morning when they found out that a policy of contracting out their jobs, giving them away to New Zealand companies and Sydney companies and wherever else, is solidly supported by their Chief Minister. They cannot wait for February to get a chance to get a Chief Minister who actually cares about what happens to Canberra, not one who solidly supports giving their jobs away to people in other parts of Australia.

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