Page 1280 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 29 March 2017
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MR BARR: Yes, which would have included the year of transition to the Abbott administration, shows that public service numbers fell from 167,330 to 166,139.
Mr Coe: I think it was June 30. It was before the election, I think.
MR BARR: Yes, so 166,139 in 2013, which is still a number greater—some 11,000 greater—than the 155,000 that they inherited. The first budget of the Abbott government cut that back from 166,139 to 157,922. So the number was cut back effectively to where it was at the time of the election of the Rudd government. The Abbott government’s budget in 2014 undid all of the growth in public sector employment over the previous six years of the Rudd-Gillard-Rudd governments.
In 2015 the public service shrank again to 152,253. That took it back to a level that was last seen under the Howard government in 2006. The most recent data is that it has risen slightly to 155,771, which is roughly where it was at the start of the Rudd government in 2007. Over the past decade under Labor administrations’ prime ministers Rudd and Gillard, public sector employment increased by about 10,000. In three years and two Abbott government budgets, that 10,000 was stripped away.
That is the story of public sector employment according to the most reliable source that we have on this, the Australian Public Service Commission. They do the head count and give us the facts on public sector employment. As Ms Le Couteur indicated in her remarks, the majority of public servants are located outside the ACT. About 40 per cent are within the territory.
They are the facts on public sector employment. It would be pleasing if there could be agreement on those facts, given that they are facts. They are not up for conjecture; they are not up for debate; they are facts. That is the level of public sector employment over that period.
It is important, as we move forward now to focus on opportunities to continue to diversify the ACT’s economy, that we do so off the base of a strong public sector. We want to ensure that the actions that we take as a government have a particular focus on diversifying the territory economy, on encouraging innovation, on encouraging the export of education services, encouraging tourism and attracting growing industries such as defence and cybersecurity to insulate our economy against these economic shocks, which you can now take as a given, given the past 40 years of history, from incoming conservative governments.
Importantly, our employment rate, our rate of employment growth, in recent times has been double the national average. We are recognised as an innovative business centre with nation-leading collaborations between education, research and development institutions and the private sector. Throughout this term of government we will continue to diversify our economy and ensure that the days of Canberra being solely a federal government town are behind us.
I think it is important to acknowledge in this debate the support of those opposite. With the minor quibble over the question of public sector employment levels and who
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