Page 1480 - Week 05 - Wednesday, 4 May 2016
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government. We are already hurting from savage cuts of the liberal government. We thought that this was going to be the last of these cuts. But, true to form, there is no truth from those in the federal Liberal government. As we have heard, the unity ticket was torn up and thrown away and any notion that any cuts to the Australian public service here in Canberra would be eased is purely and absolutely a nonsense.
The efficiency dividend imposed on the APS has increased. This will hurt agencies and their ability to deliver services and indeed we will see jobs cut. Modelling by ACT Treasury shows 1,400 Canberra-based Australian public service staff will lose their jobs.
Through you, Madam Speaker, Mr Wall dismisses that, smiles at it, smirks at it, laughs at it. For those 1,400 families of individuals who will lose their job, that is the response that we get from those opposite. And of course the great supporter of small business will also understand that the 1,400 jobs lost will affect not only those individuals and their families but also the businesses and small businesses supported by those families. As the Chief Minister said last night, this budget is breathtaking hypocrisy.
The Liberals claim that this budget is a budget for growth but in the so-called efficiency dividends and cuts to national institutions we see more than a thousand Canberrans lose their jobs. It is pretty hard for Canberra small business to grow when the Liberals keep on sacking their customers. They have broken their word to Canberrans after the previous Prime Minister assured the Chief Minister that the cuts were over. Unsurprisingly they have done nothing to plug the gaping holes that have been left in our schools and our hospitals.
Mr Hanson, through you, Madam Speaker, came in here and said the Canberra Times was all for the budget. I am looking at a headline “Federal budget 2016: Pain for ACT as national institutions see jobs go”. That is not a good headline. I do not think that is a positive headline that Mr Hanson should be proud of. The article says:
The ACT is a loser from Treasurer Scott Morrison’s first federal budget.
The budget papers suggest the workforce of Canberra’s national cultural institutions will drop by about 63 full-time equivalent positions … with the National Library … losing 28 positions in a move blamed in part on a decline in revenue from external sources.
The government will save nearly $2 billion from its efficiency dividend.
The federal Liberal Party, supported by those opposite, want to save $2 billion off the back of Canberra families. This article goes on to say that the National Gallery’s workforce will drop and that the National Portrait Gallery will see fewer jobs. It also goes on to say:
In March, the government revealed national institutions would be forced to deliver nearly $40 million of savings within four years, above earlier federal budget cuts. …
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