Page 2219 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 9 May 2012
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aged care reform, some of the family tax changes and payments to families are all welcome and I think are a good step in the right direction in terms of addressing some of the genuine social needs across Australia.
In terms of a lot of the focus today, it has very much been around the potential job losses within the commonwealth public service. The advice to the ACT government is that they are in the next financial year in the order of 1,400 full-time equivalents spread across the very large agencies right through to the very small.
The commonwealth have advised in terms of initial communication that this will be managed through natural attrition and through a process of voluntary redundancies. We do note that the usual turnover in the commonwealth public service is in the order of five per cent. These 1,400 jobs are in the order of one to 1.5 per cent of the commonwealth public service. In terms of managing how we support our economic stability in the ACT, job reductions, while regrettable, will be able to be managed as long as we get some of the key decisions right over the short term.
I think there are a number of issues facing the ACT government that we need to consider now in light of the budget last night, and we want to be careful with that decision making. In terms of the ACT, I do believe that we have taken a disproportional hit in terms of the savings that have been sought by the commonwealth. They are not in the order of what the federal Liberal Party is talking about by any means. I think Mr Hockey last night refused to rule out starting at 20,000 jobs. But even if you take a conservative estimate of what he is proposing, he said he definitely would start at 12,000 jobs.
Mr Smyth: When are you going to stand up and tell your federal colleagues to get stuffed?
Mr Seselja: That is what federal Labor is doing now—12,000.
Mr Hanson: 12,000 is federal Labor.
MS GALLAGHER: Right, thank you. They always start squealing the moment you mention Tony Abbott and his gang of merry men up on the hill.
Opposition members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MS GALLAGHER: There are only three going at the moment—no, four, five. Mr Coe is the only one not interjecting.
Opposition members interjecting—
MR SPEAKER: Order, members! Thank you.
MS GALLAGHER: I can tell you, Mr Speaker, that in terms of job reductions, 1,400 job reductions are regrettable but they can be managed. We need to make some
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