Page 2981 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
future. And this is the point. Mr Gentleman talked about Howard saying one thing and then another thing happening. Let us not forget that in 2010 we were told repeatedly by federal Labor, including by the local representatives, that there were not going to be job cuts. That is what we were told. We were assured, a bit like when we were assured that Labor was delivering a surplus.
However, we know Labor never delivered a surplus, and we know, based on the analysis that has been done by a number of people, including the CPSU, that the cuts are about 10,000. That is what we know about. God knows what will then happen if Rudd, Gillard, Shorten or whoever the Labor Party put up next were to get back into government, or how many thousands would be cut.
It is quite evident that none of us here in the Assembly want to see jobs cut federally or locally. We all support growth. We want to see jobs here in the ACT. But the nub of this motion calls on this Assembly to have an honest conversation about it, not just try and run a one-sided argument about what is happening.
The reality is that the coalition are not actually in government. They may or may not win the next election. But we know what has happened, because it is in the budget and other documents. We know what has happened under the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd government, supported by Brown and Milne. We know that 10,000 jobs have either gone or are going.
We also know that the ACT government have been threatening local workers. The CPSU have come out and said that the government are threatening their workers. They are using the fear of job cuts to try and screw the wage negotiations down. I read the quotes in my speech, and if I get time in closing I will go to them. So Katy Gallagher is out there threatening. That is not my assessment; that is the CPSU’s assessment. So I think it is pretty reasonable for this Assembly to call on the Chief Minister to stop threatening ACT public servants with further job cuts. I think that is a reasonable thing to call for.
Mr Barr in his amendments said, “There has been growth in the ACT public service,” but he forgets to mention that we are seeing 100 going out of Education, we are seeing 17 out of CIT, we are seeing 38 out of CSD, and they are real jobs that are going.
Finally, the motion states that the Assembly reaffirms its support and respect for the ACT and federal public service. I am encouraged to see that Mr Barr has maintained that element.
The summation of what we have discussed today is that jobs are being cut in big numbers and that the government has not been honest about that—either members in this place or federal members. The reason is that the federal government has presided over a disastrous budget situation. We have seen, in the forward estimates, the debt ceiling approaching $300 billion.
I remind you, Madam Deputy Speaker, that when the government took over there was no debt. There was money in the bank and there were services. As much as Mr Gentleman and others bemoan the fact that when Howard got in he made some tough
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video