Page 5877 - Week 14 - Wednesday, 7 December 2011
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1995 budget, where 4,000 jobs were mooted to have gone. Lo and behold, I went looking and found this wonderful grab where Mr Johns, the minister, had said that many would be out of jobs. It was reported in the Canberra Times on 11 May 1995. Here is a quote from Hansard:
The government should come clean. When will it say how many jobs will be lost in the federal Public Service through its budget? What hypocrites and deceivers government members are.
Of course, that government said they would not cut the public service either. Now, those quotes are my quotes because I stood in the chamber and spoke to this. I said how disappointing it was and asked the minister questions about the job cuts and where they were coming from. Of course, like the federal Labor Party now, they obfuscated and would not tell the truth. They should tell the truth. People have a right to know where these jobs are coming from. Again, we have got the chief cheerleader saying: “Don’t panic. It’s not that bad. It’s only 300 jobs.” But, again, before the 2010 federal election, who promised not to cut the public service? The ALP. What is happening now? Because they cannot manage their budgets they cut the public service.
Mr Seselja: An absolute lie.
MR SMYTH: It is a flat-out lie; it is a lie to the people of Australia. They gave a commitment that there would be no carbon tax and there would be no cuts to the public service. Yet the lies continue. Far from Ms Porter’s claim that the Labor Party is the party of jobs, the actions of the same Labor Party will result in some hundreds—probably more like thousands—of people losing their jobs. So much for the Labor Party being the party of jobs.
The purpose today is to ask our Chief Minister to stand up to her federal colleagues for the ACT. It does not matter who is proposing these job losses. It does not matter which side of politics you are on. This place should be united in this thing. This side have asked their federal colleagues to reconsider. We have stood up. We got to the purpose of Ms Porter’s motion even before Ms Porter had considered the motion, and we have done the right thing. We are now saying it is time for the Chief Minister to stand up. It does not matter which party is proposing it. The Canberra Liberals will always stand up for jobs in Canberra. It is about time that the Chief Minister did it today.
My purpose today is to ask our Chief Minister to stand up against her federal colleagues for the ACT, to stand up for the ACT economy, to stand up for the ACT community but, most importantly, to stand up for the ACT residents who will lose their jobs as a consequence of federal Labor’s mismanagement of the budget. My motion asks the Chief Minister to demonstrate in the strongest possible terms that the actions of the Gillard federal Labor government will disadvantage the ACT and will disadvantage the people who lose their jobs and the families of those who lose their jobs. It reminds me of something else that Ms Porter said, quite stupidly, when she said, “After 12 long years of federal Liberal neglect of the ACT, it’s great to assure the jobs of Canberrans into the future.” What a difference a couple of months make, Ms Porter; what a difference a couple of months make.
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