Page 3089 - Week 08 - Tuesday, 14 August 2012
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The cost of living is important to people, and the cost of living has gone up under this government. When we asked the Chief Minister, who had been Treasurer, whether or not she thought people had done better under her time as Treasurer and now as Chief Minister in regard to the cost of living, she said she had noticed there had been an increase in the discussion about the cost of living but refused to answer whether people were better or worse off. If they were better off, she would have been there claiming the victory but, by her own lack of evidence in her answer, it is quite clear that she does not believe that people are better off after 11 years of Labor government.
We got to the issue of employment in the ACT. It is interesting to note the views of people with regard to employment. I think anybody working in the federal public service this day knows the true extent of the jobs that are going. Only history will reveal, when the staffing numbers come out at the end of this financial year, the true numbers that the federal government has cut. They are significant. I believe them to be more than the 1,400 reported and the number the government is sticking to. Indeed, it then goes to employment in the ACT. The Chief Minister was asked whether she would rule out further job cuts given the fact that Wayne Swan, the federal Treasurer, had said that, if required, further cuts would be in order.
The government apparently still has this fixation that if the Labor Party does something it is simply fiscal consolidation—the weasel words of avoidance. We all know that when governments cut budgets, given that, in most cases, half of the budget is represented by employee costs, they are cutting jobs. Using the weasel words of fiscal consolidation I think shows the disregard that people have for the basic humanity of those people that they get rid of. This is, of course, the only party that has stood up to both Liberal and Labor federal leaders with regard to job cuts. I quote from page 55 of the report:
In evidence, the Chief Minister would not definitively rule out that the estimated reduction in FTEs in 2012-13 would exceed 180 or ‘other job losses’.
So there is recommendation 23 that says that the government should provide a detailed breakdown of those jobs. We will watch with interest whether or not the government can bring itself to answer that question.
There were, of course, two recall days in this estimates process, where the health minister and the minister for Indigenous affairs were recalled. Going to page 67, there are a couple of pages devoted to data management. But, again, the bulk of the committee could not agree to putting in a recommendation about data management. There is no recommendation. There is still no data. We are still none the wiser as to what impact the data doctoring scandal at the Canberra Hospital has had on those numbers.
We note the Auditor-General’s report where she said that, even on the doctored data, you could see the 10-year decline in the delivery of services in the emergency department under this government, and particularly the last six years under this health minister. So no doubt that 10-year decline will be even worse when we finally see that
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