Page 4171 - Week 13 - Thursday, 27 November 2014
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I noted with interest yesterday that Mr Hanson’s motion on the health system quoted facts about Canberra Hospital which were reported by local ABC news. Perhaps in the future that reporting will not occur and Mr Hanson will not have the benefit of that scrutiny from our local reporters. I think we would all have to agree that Canberra will be worse off without that independent scrutiny.
As the Greens representative in this chamber, I put on the record that I strongly oppose these cuts. They should be reversed. That might seem a hard ask but it is amazing what can be achieved with concerted public pressure. And the public are opposed to the cuts as well. They are making their voice heard now and I imagine they will do so at the next election. If not, this could be the first in a series of funding attacks on our respected public broadcasters. The Greens will fight to oppose these cuts and to ensure proper funding is provided. I call on my fellow MLAs to do the same. I commend the motion to the Assembly.
MR HANSON (Molonglo—Leader of the Opposition) (11.23): Madam Deputy Speaker, there is a game of bluff going on between me and Minister Corbell. In rising to speak to the motion—I will not call it a wally motion. What shall I call it? A grandstanding motion? Is that in order? This self-indulgent piece of grandstanding by Mr Rattenbury. We know that what drives Mr Rattenbury with his motions in here is the opportunity for a bit of publicity. There could be no greater publicity that he craves than the attention of the ABC. Mr Rattenbury, a crusader for the ABC, is coming in here to make his case so that he gets the media attention he so craves.
It is somewhat ironic. When the Labor government, under Julia Gillard, supported by the Greens, was cutting the public service to ribbons, when it was applying efficiency dividends significantly higher than those applied to the ABC and when thousands of ACT residents who worked in the federal public service were losing their jobs, did we hear a squeak from Mr Rattenbury? There was not a pipsqueak from Mr Rattenbury as thousands of public servants lost their jobs across the federal departments of health, education and the environment. Across the board and across national institutions as well cuts were made under efficiency dividends imposed by the Gillard government. I will just read from a couple of articles. In August 2012, Laura Tingle wrote:
Federal cabinet ministers have been told that departments face another round of big staffing cuts, in a move that will blunt Labor’s attack on state Coalition governments for slashing public service numbers.
Cabinet ministers have been told the expenditure review committee of cabinet will impose a further “efficiency dividend” on the federal bureaucracy, in addition to the on-going 1.5 per cent dividend and an additional, one-off 2.5 percentage-point boost dividend imposed last November. That took the dividend—in effect, enforced spending cuts—in 2012-13 to 4 per cent.
Four per cent in a single year in health and education. All of those federal bureaucrats were sacked by Gillard and Rudd. Did we hear anything out of Mr Rattenbury? Where was the outrage in this chamber then? There was not a squeak. A four per cent efficiency dividend in one year for federal departments and national institutions and there was not a squeak. But 4.6 per cent over five years for the ABC and there is
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