Page 3796 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 24 August 2011
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Labor. I call on the ACT Labor Party to do the same and to show that it is about Canberrans, not about cheap political points on their behalf.
I will not be holding my breath, as Ms Porter will not, but I have already done what she is asking me to do. Indeed, when I put it directly to Tony Abbott in relation to potential job cuts, the policy of the Liberal Party was confirmed and clarified. I do not agree with that policy, but it is not what is being touted and it is not what is in this motion. I do not agree—
Mr Barr interjecting—
MR SESELJA: The policy is—over a period of two years across the entire public service, not in Canberra—a reduction, through natural attrition, of 12,000 jobs. That is across the entire public service. As I said, I do not agree with that policy. I put it to him—I put it to him in writing and personally—that I do not think that is the best way to go. But that is the truth of the policy. First, we need to deal with the truth.
I bet that in the next budget of Labor, which Labor will deliver in May next year, there will be thousands of job losses foreshadowed in the ACT. What that number will be we do not know, but there will be job losses; there will be job cuts. Federal Labor said that that would not happen, before the election. They said that it was all going to be the Liberal Party. Let us face it: both parties are cutting back; both parties are looking to make savings. I would say to both: there is no easy path back to surplus just through cutting jobs in Canberra. I would say: have regard to the needs of Canberra families. We will stand up for them. And there are often better ways of making savings.
Unlike those opposite, we are not just going to talk to one mob and pretend that only one party is going to cut jobs in Canberra or has cut jobs in Canberra. If we want to talk about job cuts in Canberra, we saw the 500 jobs that were cut here by local Labor. That was their commitment to the public service—500 jobs cut in the 2006 budget. That is what happens when you lose control of your spending. Eventually someone cops it, and it is often people in the ACT, whether it is local public servants as a result of Jon Stanhope and Andrew Barr and their policies or whether it is a result of federal Labor’s mismanagement.
My amendment, and I commend it to the Assembly, is very clear. It highlights some of the concerns. It highlights the truth of some of what has happened. It acknowledges the fact that what is being called for for me to do has already been done. And it now says back to the Labor Party, “Will you actually stand up to your federal colleagues?” You were silent when they were cutting before. You were silent when they said they were going to take a meataxe. You were silent—in fact, you had people egging on—when they made some of their cuts, like Andrew Barr. But what are you going to do over the next few months as the budget rounds are there? Will you make representations? If you do, we will join in. We will be very happy to take on anyone.
Let us just be clear. One side of politics here is prepared to stand up for Canberra regardless of who the federal government is. The Labor Party and the Greens need to show that they can do the same or this is simply a partisan exercise. I commend my amendment to the Assembly.
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