Page 2302 - Week 08 - Wednesday, 5 June 2013
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Economy
Debate resumed.
MR HANSON (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (3.38): To refresh members’ memories, before lunch we were having a spirited debate about the budget. I commend Mr Smyth for bringing his motion before the Assembly. It is interesting to actually go through this motion. Again, it is one of those motions I am sure that the government will not support, but when you actually go through it line by line you will find that there is real truth in what Mr Smyth is saying. The first point is that he notes—
Mr Barr interjecting—
MR HANSON: There is more interjection from Mr Barr, but it will be interesting to see which one he disputes. Mr Smyth notes:
… the Government’s failure to disclose job and service cuts to the community in the lead up to the election …
Does anyone remember Katy Gallagher, Andrew Barr or any of the rest of them going out there and saying: “At the next budget we’ll cut jobs. We’ll cut services. Our policies aren’t fully funded.”
Mr Wall: I think they did talk about job cuts.
MR HANSON: Did they? Oh, that is right. They did have job cuts, didn’t they? Remember? They went out and they said that the Canberra Liberals had a secret plan to cut jobs. It is ironic really, because one of the big parts of their scare campaign was that Mrs Dunne was going to cut jobs from the Community Services Directorate, that she was going to transfer jobs from the Community Services Directorate to somewhere else. That was part of the scare campaign. The CPSU were out there warning everybody. Joy Burch was out there warning everybody. And what is in this budget? There are 38 jobs going from the Community Services Directorate to somewhere else. So what Katy Gallagher, Andrew Barr, Joy Burch and the CPSU said was wrong—running a scare campaign. That is exactly what this government has done in this budget.
And there are a hundred jobs out of education. The first thing that we see from Gonski, the first reform we see from Gonski, is a hundred jobs going from the education directorate—and 17 from CIT. It is good to see Mrs Dunne sitting in her chair there. I am sure that she feels some degree of vindication after being vilified, as she was, by those opposite and the CPSU. It is great to see that Mrs Dunne is someone whose word you can trust—much different from those opposite.
The next point that Mr Smyth is asking us to note is this:
… the Government’s lack of honesty, in their assurances to Canberrans that their election promises were fully funded …
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