Page 2260 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 9 May 2012
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Good job, Gai Brodtmann. If that is your defence, I would hate to see it if you got a bit wishy-washy over it.
This is the problem and this is why this motion today is so important. It is important that we stand up for where we live. We all know our federal parties may often have a different agenda, but our job is to stand up for those that live here and deserve our support. We are yet to hear from the minister a denunciation of these job cuts, and I doubt we will ever hear a denunciation from the Chief Minister. Indeed what did the Treasurer call it? On 4 April the Canberra Times reported:
The ACT Treasurer … said that confidence was not helped by “the promise by the federal Liberals to cut 12,000 public service jobs in addition to any current fiscal consolidation”.
Minister Barr, in attempting to defend the fiscal policies of his Labor colleagues in the federal parliament, described the losses of more than 2,000 commonwealth public service jobs as fiscal consolidation. What a disgrace: “You’ve been fiscally consolidated. You’re not getting sacked. You’re not getting relieved. You’re not getting a redundancy. You’ve just been fiscally consolidated.” What a joke! This is the great fiscal consolidator at work. It has to be one of the worst examples of a euphemism ever recorded. Let me repeat: Mr Barr’s view of the world from his position as a highly paid Treasurer of the ACT is that these commonwealth officers have not lost their jobs; they have just been fiscally consolidated. It probably does not hurt if you are fiscally consolidated.
We know the job losses. We know that Health lost 100; the Australia Council perhaps 110; the ABS, 75; the National Gallery, 17; the National Library, 11; Film and Sound Archive, seven; National Museum, 20; Education, 500; Treasury, we think 150; Customs, 12 SES but no details on the other staff; Veterans’ Affairs lost 90; in March this year Resources lost 100; in April, Regional Australia, 130; Climate Change lost 300; ComSuper, 50; Fair Work Australia, 70; and Human Services, 470. They are just the details that have sort of been eked out, slowly, as people have been fiscally consolidated out of the federal public service.
The problem is that the government in this place is not standing up for the federal public servants of the ACT. But the Assembly will. I will be urging members to support Mr Seselja’s motion today. It is a great motion. We note the significant contribution to the life of Australia made by our public service. We note the importance of the commonwealth public service to the entire stability of the ACT.
It is not just the first-round effects; it is not just the job losses, those individuals who lose their job, straight up. It is the second, third and subsequent effects that we will see. The second-round effects will see the reduction in demand for goods and services from the people who have been made redundant, such as groceries, essential services—getting your motor vehicle serviced, eating out and so on. The third-round effects will see reduction in demand for supplies from those businesses which have already experienced reduced demand, and then at some point the fall-off in demand for other services such as housing and rental properties. Somebody needs to stand up for the public servants of the ACT. Mr Seselja’s motion does that today.
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