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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 5 Hansard (11 May) . . Page.. 1472 ..

MR MOORE (continuing):

I am aware of Mr Kaine's motion on the notice paper; a very sensible motion, I have to say, that we are going to be able to respond to. In fact, much of it is required by the legislation; it has just been refined a bit by Mr Kaine. Let me just make that offer to any member who wants any information. No matter how you voted on it, it does not matter as the decision has been made. It is now being implemented and I am happy to provide any part of the information on what we are doing.

MR BERRY: Chief Minister, yesterday in your fawning endorsement of the Costello budget, a budget which incidentally has been questioned by many sensible economic commentators, you welcomed a large increase in expenditure on research and development and, at the same time, noted a revenue flow to the ACT from the sale of the CSIRO buildings in the ACT. Chief Minister, do you offer the same fawning endorsement for the loss of 133 staff at the CSIRO next year?

MS CARNELL: I would prefer it if not one staff member anywhere ever lost their job.

MR BERRY: I have a supplementary question. Chief Minister, have you taken the time to work out how many of these jobs will be lost from the ACT?

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, the actual figures show an increase in public servants in the ACT. I have to say that the reason for that is the huge increase in areas such as-

Mr Berry: I take a point of order, Mr Speaker. If the Chief Minister wants to talk about the tax jobs that are going to be here for the GST and then disappear later, that is fair enough.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, that is not a point of order.

Mr Berry: This is about CSIRO jobs, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: The Chief Minister is answering the question. There is no point of order.

MS CARNELL: The supplementary question was not about the CSIRO jobs. I made it clear that I would prefer it if not one was ever lost anywhere and there were only new jobs all the time, but the reality is that the federal government has decided to cut some jobs in the CSIRO. I do not support that at all, but the overall impact on jobs in the ACT of the federal budget is actually an increase because, interestingly, the GST that those opposite abhor is actually a job creator in Canberra; it is that simple. We could say that we will have a GST-led recovery if those people would like to look at it that way.

The reality is that there will be quite significant job increases in tax and in other areas related to the implementation of the GST. Interestingly, a lot of those jobs will continue with the implementation of the Ralph report and other parts of the tax reform package. Mr Speaker, it is inevitable in any large organisation that jobs move from one area to another, but I think that it is very short-sighted to move jobs out of organisations such as the CSIRO that I believe continue to add significantly to Australia's wealth via research, development and innovation.

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