Page 2259 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 9 May 2012
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spoken with them. I have got good advice.” Did he stand up for Canberrans? No. He rolled over, acquiesced and hung them out to dry.
It starts with our federal Labor members that Ms Gallagher is so keen to choose in preference to standing up for the public service here in the ACT as outlined in Mr Seselja’s motion. Back on 19 August 2010 Ross Solly asked Andrew Leigh whether or not the public service would be better under Labor than under Liberal. Andrew Leigh said, “Yes, yes, of course it is.” The conversation went something like this: “Can you stand here this morning and say to us that nobody in the public service here in Canberra will lose their job or be forced to take a redundancy under a Gillard government?” Andrew Leigh replied, “Ross, what I can competently say to you is that the public service is going to be far better under a Labor government.” Ross Solly: “But you can’t guarantee that, can you? No-one can give that guarantee.”
Then Ross Solly went on and talked about the efficiency dividend and Andrew Leigh said, “But the efficiency dividend is going to be lower under Labor than it is under the coalition.” What is it now? It is 4½ per cent. What did he say? “But the efficiency dividend is going to be lower under Labor than it is under the coalition.” There is the first big lie—absolutely disavowed; it is gone.
Then we had the remarkable process this year where various Labor members were asked at various times what was happening to the public service and we got an appalling litany. As late as last night Senator Lundy was saying, “Oh, no, there are no cuts, no—nothing to see here.”
Mr Seselja: She is a minister.
MR SMYTH: She is a minister. Senator Lundy was asked a question in an interview on the ABC on 4 April 2012 and she said that the number of commonwealth public servants in the ACT “will not reduce”. “Will not reduce” sounds like a pretty firm guarantee to me. That is not half a statement or a quarter of a statement; that is the full bottle, that one: “will not reduce”. That was just over a month ago.
What did Mr Leigh say? He said there was “every expectation that this temporary increase in the efficiency dividend can be met without job losses”. This was back in February. The Canberra Times had determined that based on the budget levels the commonwealth would reduce its staff by more than 14,000 over the next three years. That was pretty accurate. Well done the journalist from the Canberra Times who got that one right. But what did Mr Leigh say? “Oh, no, no job losses here. Don’t look here. This isn’t going to happen. It’ll be taken up in consultants and travel and stationery and all those sorts of things.”
Then we had Gai Brodtmann. What was Gai Brodtmann putting out into the public? She said, “I will stand up for public servants.” What does she say in the Brodtmann Bulletin? It is a fabulous read. This is Gai Brodtmann:
The people who work in the public service deserve our support. That’s why I will always defend the public service and public sector jobs here in Canberra.
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