Page 3795 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 24 August 2011
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Rudd saying before the 2007 election that he was going to take a meataxe to Canberra. We did not hear a whimper out of ACT Labor. We heard the same sentiments from Lindsay Tanner. Not a whimper from ACT Labor. When the federal Labor government came in and slashed the NCA, slashed the functions of the NCA and other institutions, at Kate Lundy’s behest, Andrew Barr cheered them on. Andrew +Barr was the chief cheerleader.
We will stand up for jobs in Canberra regardless of who is in the federal government. Whether it is Tony Abbott as Prime Minister, or whether it is Julia Gillard, Kevin Rudd or anyone else, we will stand up for jobs in Canberra. That is what we have been doing.
We also know that local Labor was silent, even this year, as we started to see some agencies cut. We saw it in this year’s budget. We read that Centrelink, whose budget is tied to the national unemployment rate, is expected to shed 1,000 full-time equivalent jobs. Medicare will lose 102 staff; the department another 138; and the Department of Education, Employment and Workplace Relations 270 full-time jobs as its stimulus programs are wound back. Customs will lose 90 and ComSuper, which has a slowly decreasing number of clients, will shed about 80 employees. That is the start of the wind-back. In the next budget the federal Labor government will look to save money wherever it can, because it desperately needs to. Canberra jobs will unfortunately be in the firing line. These are the harsh economic realities of a bad federal government.
We believe in fiscal responsibility, but we do not believe that there is an easy path to fiscal responsibility through cutting jobs in Canberra. We do not believe that that is the best way back. Unfortunately, both sides of politics federally have long seen some political benefit in bashing Canberra. We denounce it. We denounce Canberra bashing by whomever it is done.
That is why I call on Katy Gallagher and Meredith Hunter to show that this is about Canberra jobs and not about the Liberal Party. If they are fair dinkum about protecting jobs in Canberra, Katy Gallagher will write to Julia Gillard and say, “In this budget, where you have promised you are going to get back into surplus, don’t be slashing and burning here in Canberra, as you inevitably will. Don’t be slashing and burning in Canberra.”
Why is it that she is only concerned about Tony Abbott, who is not in government and who, on Julia Gillard’s reckoning, cannot be in government for at least another two years? Has local Labor already written off the chances of federal Labor being re-elected—so that they do not even bother talking to Julia Gillard, because they do not think she will be here? She will be here for at least the next two years, most likely, unless there is a change in the composition of the parliament. In those two years, will Katy Gallagher stand up to Julia Gillard? Will she stand up to federal Labor? Or will she just write to the Liberal Party, which is not in office? That would demonstrate that you are not fair dinkum. That would demonstrate that you do not care what happens in the next couple of years under a federal Labor administration.
We happen to care regardless of who is in office. That is why we have made representations to our federal Liberal colleagues. That is why I have written to federal
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