Page 1449 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 14 May 2014
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I do not think you can blame everything on the ACT government or the Gillard government or the Rudd government. Decisions were taken about this city last night which were taken by the Liberal Party—by Tony Abbott and his friends supported in this place, aided and abetted by the 3IC, the Abbott apologist. Well, no-one else is talking, Mr Smyth. Nobody else seems to care what happened to this city. The small opportunity there is for us to work together is shown wanting today by the complete disinterest shown by the Canberra Liberals in this debate and what happened to this city last night. That will rest on your heads.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Sport and Recreation, Minister for Tourism and Events and Minister for Community Services) (11.44): It is disappointing to have to speak to this amendment today. It is disappointing to have to canvass the devastating impact the commonwealth government—the federal Liberals, the Liberal Party—is imposing upon our city. Let’s be very clear: the decisions taken last night will have an impact on our city. Not only was the budget handed down last night full of lies and broken promises, but it went further than a number of stated election commitments, particularly in relation to the number of job losses.
It is disappointing, but it is not surprising because it comes from a political party that has a fundamental dislike of the public sector and no regard for the sector’s contribution to our society. It is no surprise because the Liberal Party have form on this. Their approach is to gut services right across this nation. It is a uniform approach taken by the party in every jurisdiction where they form government.
Ms Porter’s motion raises a number of issues that the Assembly should be concerned about. The federal budget will have an impact on the economy. The initial estimated job losses in the ACT—6,500 directly and a further 1,500 likely to go as the result of mergers, privatisations and the abolition of agencies, so around 7,500 to 8,000. We have 215,000 jobs in our economy. This is the Liberal way. But the even sadder thing is that the commonwealth government is not interested in helping this community through the impacts of the savage cuts that it is imposing on this community.
Economic shocks happen around Australia due to international and global events, but usually the commonwealth government is there to assist. For example, when BlueScope closed its plant in Port Kembla and the region lost 0.7 of one per cent of its workforce, the commonwealth was there with a $30 million fund to stimulate the economy as a result of the loss of those jobs. When Holden closed in Elizabeth, 1.4 per cent of Adelaide’s workforce was slashed. When Holden closed their plant in Port Melbourne, half of one per cent of the workforce was lost. The commonwealth assisted with $60 million transition packages. When Ford announced its closures in Geelong and Melbourne, again, half a per cent of the region’s workforce lost their jobs and a $40 million transition package was provided. When Toyota announced the closure of its Altona plant and just under one per cent of the local employment base lost their jobs, a further financial assistance package was provided.
In all of these examples, under 1.5 per cent of the local workforce lost their jobs, nevertheless, there was a significant and negative impact in those communities from
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