Page 1143 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 8 April 2008
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review to determine whether it was a good idea or where there might be overlap. That is not about efficiency dividends. Those cuts to the NCA were clearly about payback for an organisation that the Labor Party in the ACT does not agree with and does not like. It should be stated for what it is rather than couched in the terminology of efficiency dividends.
Those NCA employees who are going to lose their jobs, and also the broader ACT community which has enjoyed much of the work which the NCA has done, particularly in promotions, marketing and events, would be very disappointed. They would be disappointed by the weak response of their ACT Labor representatives, who have really done nothing to oppose these cuts. We know that the chief cheerleader for the cuts to the cultural institutions was Mr Barr. The chief cheerleader went on radio and said, “These cuts to the cultural institutions are actually good.” He did not say, “Well, look, these are efficiency dividends and we need to find efficiency dividends.” He said, “This is good because with fewer roadshows there’ll be more coming to Canberra.” We know what the Stanhope Labor position on these cuts is: they are a good thing and they are welcome.
In fact, when we couch it in terms of efficiency savings and efficiency dividends, it belies the other reports we have recently heard and read about, involving the proposal to end ADFA—to actually kill ADFA. Is that about efficiency dividends, if they are considering that? Are they seriously telling us that would be a good thing for the military—that by cutting the $200 million that ADFA represents and by not providing training for the best and brightest in our military that would actually lead to a more productive defence force and a more capable defence force? Those are the kinds of ludicrous cuts that are being considered at the moment. We can only hope that they are not serious about those kinds of cuts and that these are just some sort of ambit claims whereby all things are on the table. But given what we have seen with the NCA and the serious cuts to that organisation, everything is on the table and we just have no way of knowing how these cuts will go.
It is disappointing that our local Labor representatives are so weak and timid in their opposition. The fence sitting of the Chief Minister, particularly on the issue of the NCA, where he was not able to clearly articulate a position as to whether these cuts were a good thing or a bad thing, is very disappointing. It is particularly disappointing for those people in the ACT who would expect their local representatives to look after their interests.
We see in today’s Canberra Times that 61 IT staff working for the Australian Federal Police will have their contracts ended because of resourcing adjustments required to achieve an efficiency dividend of $24 million. The Australian newspaper reported late last month that the razor gang was looking at options to wipe out one-quarter of CSIRO’s research budget. The report revealed that up to 1,000 front-line scientists could be lost in 2008-09, with a further 500 in the next year. Let us, once again, put it in the context of efficiency savings. This is not about efficiency savings. Some of the proposals that are on the table are about mindless cutting. We tended to hear from the opposition leader, as he was then, now the Prime Minister, Kevin Rudd, a lot about productivity. He was in trouble whenever he was pinned down on the details of productivity, as we saw in the embarrassing interview with
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