Page 3794 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 24 August 2011

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(g) that the Leader of the Opposition has personally approached the Federal Leader of the Opposition in relation to protecting Commonwealth Public Service jobs in Canberra; and

(h) that the leader of the ACT Labor Party and the leader of the ACT Greens have written only to the Federal Liberal leader in relation to protecting Commonwealth Public Service jobs in Canberra; and

(2) calls on the leaders of ACT Labor and the ACT Greens to:

(a) write to Federal parliamentarians, without fear, favour or prejudice;

(b) stand up for Canberra and protect local jobs regardless of which party is in power or which party is instigating job cuts; and

The reason this amendment is necessary is that much of what is in Ms Porter’s original motion has already occurred. I might start there.

The motion calls on me to write to my federal colleagues and to stand up for Canberra and publicly denounce the federal Liberals’ scheme. I have already written to both the federal Labor leader and the federal Liberal leader in relation to job cuts in the ACT. Unfortunately Canberra bashing has become a bit of a national pastime for federal politicians. I do not think that federal politicians on the Labor side or the Liberal side have a particular monopoly on this. That is why I wrote to then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd and called on him not to be cutting jobs in Canberra. That is why I wrote to the federal Liberal leader, Tony Abbott, and called on him not to cut jobs in Canberra. I have also personally lobbied my federal Liberal colleagues in relation to potential job cuts.

Unfortunately, we are in a position now where the budget is in such a state, as a result of federal Labor, that cuts will be made. Let us be absolutely clear: cuts will be made now by federal Labor or federal Liberal. There is no doubt about that. The federal Labor Party have said that they are going to get the budget back into surplus come what may. It does not matter whether or not there is a global downturn; it does not matter whether or not there is less revenue coming in. They have said that they are going to get the budget back into surplus—in the next budget, actually: in the next financial year.

The problem we face in the ACT is that because the commonwealth government, the federal Labor government, have so badly mismanaged the budget—and because they have so badly wedged themselves now on their surplus promise, because they have never delivered a surplus and they are desperate to show that they can—they will now be desperate to deliver that surplus, which will involve cutting jobs in Canberra.

My concern, and this is what my amendment calls for, is for everyone in this place to be fair dinkum and to lobby both sides of politics in relation to this. I remember Kevin

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