Page 3689 - Week 08 - Thursday, 19 August 2010
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absurd mining tax, but seeking to increase the rate at which it is applied, removing concessions within the capital gains tax regime, then introducing an estate tax to double dip on the capital gains tax, increasing the rate of company tax, and shifting the basis of taxation into natural resources and away from what are called work-based taxes.
There is no provision for economic strength and prosperity for the ACT from either the Labor Party or the Greens. The only idea we have of the approach of these two parties is to continue slugging business to pay for increasing profligate spending promises.
That brings me to the current election campaign and the twisting and turning of the Labor Party as it seeks to attack the Liberal Party on the prospects for the public service in the ACT. Employment in the public service, commonwealth and ACT, is integral to the prosperity of the ACT. That is a statement of reality and we all know it. The Liberal Party has made certain commitments relating to the public service. They can be judged on their own merits. People have obviously made their own decisions. Of course, the Labor Party is using these commitments in an attempt to engage in scaremongering.
It is essential for the community to realise, however, that the Labor Party has been targeting, and is continuing to target, the commonwealth public service in the ACT. We recently saw sackings with no notice from the current Prime Minister’s former department of employment of a number of IT professionals working in the ACT. How ironic—just terminate them.
We saw the massive cut to the budget of the National Capital Authority and the resultant sacking of 40 per cent of the NCA staff. We saw the Rudd Labor government abandon the Howard commitment to the Griffin legacy projects. It not only ripped $40 million off these projects and off the agenda. It also refused to compensate the ACT for the gift of land that we made to the commonwealth.
We have seen the effect of the so-called efficiency dividend on national institutions in the ACT and reductions in the critical marketing budget. I see that the chief cheer leader for those cuts is with us today. We have seen the promise of the federal Labor Party to cut $840 million from the budget for administration and technology.
This will save the taxpayer but it will hurt the ACT. If that series of cuts is not enough, we now have the Labor candidate for Fraser, Andrew Leigh, joining in the public service cuts. What did he say on ABC Radio 666 this morning? How did he respond to the following question from Ross Solly? Ross Solly asked:
Can you stand here this morning and say to us nobody—nobody—in the public service here in Canberra will lose their job or be forced to take a redundancy under the Gillard government?
This was Andrew Leigh’s response:
Ross what I can confidently say to you is that the public service is going to be far better under a Labor government …
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