Page 3379 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 17 August 2010
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the floor on this? He is a great crosser of floors, Senator Humphries. What representations or protestations has Senator Humphries made? Importantly, what have his colleagues in the Assembly done? What have the leaders of the Liberal Party in the ACT done to seek to protect this city and this community? What have they done to protect the jobs, the economy and the families that will be affected by a $24 billion cut to commonwealth government outlays? We understand that the price of that $24 billion cut will be 12,000 public service jobs and, according to modelling done by the ACTU, there will be a flow-on effect or impact on an additional 17,000 jobs throughout the ACT.
The commonwealth public service, of course, is fundamental to the welfare of this city in terms of its operations and its future. It is easy politics. Mr Abbott and Mr Hockey are being unrelenting, unremitting and unapologetic in relation to their bashing of Canberra all around the nation. Bash, bash, bash. “This is how we will reap these billion-dollar-a-day promises that we have made over the course of this election campaign—we will do it by taking $24 billion out of Canberra.” That is how they justify their entire election strategy, each of the promises they make, the billion dollars a day that they are racking up in promises. And they mean it when they are asked, “Well, how are you going to pay for this?” and they say, “Oh, it’s easy to pay for that. We’ll just take $24 billion out of commonwealth outlays. We’ll just cut the ACT workforce by 12,000 in the hope that nobody around Australia will notice,” with absolutely no compunction in relation to the devastation that it will wreak in the ACT.
The question we can rightly ask in this place today is this: what has Zed Seselja done about it? What has the shadow Treasurer, Brendan Smyth, done about it? It will be interesting to hear how Brendan Smyth, as shadow Treasurer, believes that this economy will function when those 12,000 jobs are taken out of the mix.
Mr Hanson interjecting—
MR STANHOPE: Where is Senator Humphries on this? He was known in his little stint in this place, of course, as the great procrastinator. (Time expired.)
MR SPEAKER: Mr Hargreaves, a supplementary question. And before you ask your question, Mr Hargreaves, let me remind you, Mr Hanson, that you received a warning from the Deputy Speaker this morning for constant intervention.
MR HARGREAVES: Chief Minister, will there be any detrimental impact of a cut of 12,000 jobs on the ACT economy that you have not outlined already?
MR STANHOPE: I thank Mr Hargreaves for that supplementary. It is important. This is not a joke. This is not a joke, because the Liberal Party have form on this. They have form going back to 1996, and we know it. We know of the pain that it caused. The same sorts of promises made by John Howard in exactly the same circumstance in 1996 are now being made by his successor and greatest fan, Tony Abbott. He will slash the ACT public service—the commonwealth public service here in the ACT. He will take 12,000 jobs. He will take $24 million in outlays out. They said they would do it last time, and they did. They were consistent on that. There is no reason to think that they will not do it this time if they get up.
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