Page 1765 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 May 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
We know that for every commonwealth public service job that is cut from the economy we lose jobs in the private sector, and cuts to the commonwealth public service of the magnitude that Mr Hockey and Mr Abbott are promising will really hurt our local businesses and will put undue pressure on the community sector. If the Liberals get in and make these cuts, we will be losing jobs in construction, in retail, in hospitality and in services.
In the early childhood sector, a sector close to my heart, the cuts in 1996 saw enrolments plummet and caused the closure of many centres. I know parents who had their children in services, particularly in Narrabundah, and that service’s enrolment declined by 50 per cent overnight. I remember when the early childhood centre at the Canberra Centre was forced to close because so many parents had lost their jobs and no longer needed to have their children in care, thus adding to even more people joining the unemployment queue.
When a government makes such large cuts to the public service, the cuts also hurt industries that rely on the public service for work, such as cleaning and security. Many of the people working in these industries work in multiple jobs on low pay. If demand diminishes due to a shrinking public service then these people will really struggle to make ends meet.
The Howard Liberal-National government cuts of 1996 had a horrendous impact on our community. And as the member for Canberra has stated in the commonwealth parliament, the sudden loss of 15,000 jobs from the ACT economy saw non-business bankruptcies rise by 17 per cent and business bankruptcies jump by 38 per cent. Dr Bourke already talked about the over 100 businesses that went into bankruptcy during the cuts in 1996. The ACT then went into recession.
There is a bizarre world view that dominates the thinking of conservatives right across the country and, indeed, the thinking of conservatives across the Western world. It is a world view that puts the economic value of a person’s work or contribution to our society above the actual work or contribution that they make. This world view is most stark, I believe, when we see the contempt that conservatives like the federal conservatives show for public servants in our town.
When Mr Hockey appeared on the ABC 7.30 Report program in March 2012 he showed the contempt that he has for the public service. I quote:
Well of course; if you wanna reduce the size of the government, if you wanna get rid of the waste, if you want to keep your commitments on track, you’re gonna have to make hard decisions.
Hard decisions: putting people on welfare because you think that their work is wasted on the nation. It is a hard decision, is it not? It is pretty contemptible.
I want all members of the Assembly who are opposing this motion to go out today and look into the eyes of a commonwealth public servant, look into the eyes of our neighbours and look into the eyes of our brothers and our sisters and our mothers and
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video