Page 3645 - Week 08 - Thursday, 19 August 2010
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the party room, who was part of and party to the decisions, who did not stand up for Canberra, and who said, “Oh well, I think it’s okay for the people of Canberra to bear that pain.” Gary Humphries came out I think yesterday and said he agreed with the increase in the efficiency dividend, that he agreed that another billion dollars should be taken out of Canberra. (Time expired.)
MR SPEAKER: A supplementary, Mr Seselja?
MR SESELJA: Thank you, Mr Speaker. Chief Minister, have you sought and received an assurance from Julia Gillard that no public servants will face forced redundancies if the Gillard government is returned?
MR STANHOPE: Mr Speaker, I am very pleased to say in the course of the last three years that I could not count the number of times that both I and my colleague the Treasurer, Katy Gallagher, have approached our federal colleagues in relation to—
Members interjecting—
MR STANHOPE: I spoke and met with Julia Gillard just a couple of weeks ago. I meet constantly with the Treasurer, the minister for finance and senior federal ministers, and on every occasion I do not hesitate to take the opportunity to explain to them. What they do every time is respond positively to overtures and representations which I make and which the Treasurer, Katy Gallagher, makes.
In the particular instance they say that they, of course, will work with us. As the record shows, over the last three years—and this is the difficulty and the issue which the Liberal Party in this place have—the federal government—
Members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Members, I cannot hear the Chief Minister.
MR STANHOPE: The difficulty the Liberal Party have, of course, to their great enduring embarrassment, is that over the last three years the current Labor government has increased federal public service employment by just over 10,000. There is the interesting number: 10,000 jobs in the public sector that were not there three years ago.
Mr Coe: On a point of order, Mr Speaker, on relevance. The question was: did he receive a guarantee? He still has not addressed that part of the question.
MR SPEAKER: The Chief Minister—
Members interjecting—
MR STANHOPE: There is an interesting equation. There are two issues here which I will conclude on. My federal colleagues have increased the public service by 10,000 in the last three years and you are going to cut 12,000. You are going to take away the 10,000 and then add 2,000 on top of it. The second point is that Brendan Smyth was
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