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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 5 Hansard (6 May) . . Page.. 1555 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

establishment of those awful things described as departure lounges for public servants, a couple of hundred of them. Mr Smyth had the gall to go on radio and say that he was looking after the workers' dignity by putting them in a departure lounge. He thought that it was a good thing to look after the workers' dignity as they were going out the door. Of course, the establishment of - - -

MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Berry, I would just like to point out there is a coup under way here. I notice Mr Rugendyke sitting near the Chief Minister's chair.

MR BERRY: Thank you, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. Are you able to interject? I suppose that is all right then. This budget has as part of its hallmark cruelty, because any Minister who would stand up in public and say that these departure lounges were good for the dignity of public servants who were losing their jobs has no idea of the real world, no idea whatsoever. He does not understand the trauma that the loss of one's job can cause to public servants, especially long-term public servants, and their families. The idea for these departure lounges is clear. It is to draw a line between where a person was working and where they are headed and make sure that there is no return to their old job in the department. It puts psychological pressure on individuals as they leave the service. In many cases, departing public servants will be scarred by this process. But the Minister does not seem to understand that.

Before the election this cheating Chief Minister promised to abandon plans for big cuts to the ACT Public Service and use the $5m worth of unspent redundancy money on a range of programs for job creation, health, education and other matters. The Chief Minister is now planning to spend $16m on axing public servants' jobs. Who would feel good about that?

Mr Moore: How did you feel when you spent $17m?

MR BERRY: Do not interject, Mr Moore. I have a little bit for you on one which I heard raised earlier and which I know you will enjoy. We spent $3m to get the waiting list up by 21 per cent. Does that mean that $6m will raise it by 40 per cent? That was not a bad little aside. We will see what happens by the end of the year. Let us get back to the main chase.

Mr Moore: What happened when you were Minister, Wayne?

MR BERRY: Mr Moore asks what happened when I was the Minister? I will go through my record if you would like. When you equal it you can sit over there boastfully. The establishment of the clinical medical school and the establishment of abortion law reform in the ACT. Do you want me to go on? Tobacco legislation and boxing legislation. Do you want a few more? I could go on for some time. When you have equalled that you can stick your halo on and give it a bit of a polish. These indicators from this budget demonstrate to us that this Government is as uncaring as it has always been.

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