Page 2266 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 9 May 2012
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Both Ms Gallagher and now Ms Hunter will ignore the Labor Party’s policy to reduce the public service by 12,000 jobs; they will only talk about the federal coalition’s almost identical plan now. The only difference in their stated policies now is that the federal coalition will do it through natural attrition; the federal Labor Party will do it through a combination of natural attrition and redundancies. We have absolute silence from Ms Hunter on that point—absolute silence.
It does cause me to reflect on the Greens’ culpability in these sackings. Members of the media can now be saying to Ms Hunter and members of the federal Greens that if they are responsible for $500 million of denticare—because they do hold the balance of power, because they do prop up the federal Labor government—why don’t they bear any responsibility for the job cuts in the commonwealth public service?
That was one of the things that they argued. It is ironic to see who was arguing it at the last election. It was Lin Hatfield Dodds, saying: “Vote for me. I’ll protect public servants.” The Greens have got unprecedented power now. The fate of this federal government is in their hands. What have they done? They have chosen to give a blank cheque to sack public servants in Canberra. What did Lin Hatfield Dodds say in response to the budget? Did anyone see Lin Hatfield Dodds’s response to the budget? She gave a wonderful endorsement of the budget last night. We saw her—
Ms Hunter: On social spending.
MR SESELJA: She says “social policy”. What about those Canberrans who are losing their jobs? Do Lin Hatfield Dodds and the Greens care about them? Clearly not. It is all hand wringing from the Greens. It is all care, no responsibility. They will lament it now, but they have the power to do something about it, and they are not. They are propping up this government and allowing them to do this. If they felt so strongly about it, as they apparently did about denticare, they have the power to do something about it. They do not control that aspect. They have claimed credit for a spending measure. Presumably, one of the reasons that public servants are being sacked is because of spending measures and the government looking to get it into surplus. They are happy to take credit for the spending measures but not to bear the responsibility for the job cuts.
Again we have this from the Greens. They have the balance of power. They have the power to save these people’s jobs. Lin Hatfield Dodds said to these people, said to the people of Canberra, “Vote for me and I’ll protect your job.” The Greens went and got the balance of power. They have the balance of power in the Senate and in the House of Representatives. They control the fate of this government. And they are going to support these sackings. They are going to support these job cuts.
The next time the Greens get up and lament things—they have the power to do something about it and they have chosen not to. They have chosen to sell these people out. When the Greens again go, “Vote for us; we’ll protect public servants,” people will be entitled to say: “You’re part of a coalition federally now, and that coalition is sacking public servants. You’re doing nothing about it.” The Greens’ hypocrisy again is on show.
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