Page 1289 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 29 March 2017
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from former Prime Minister John Howard’s contemporary protégés is little more than distrust, disrespect and a total disregard for our city and the public service.
Former Prime Minister John Howard’s policy of indiscriminately taking an axe to the public service resulted in a downturn in the Canberra economy which ACT Labor governments have been working to counteract. Almost overnight, real estate values plummeted, small businesses closed, whole departments changed and people left Canberra. Tens of thousands of public servants lost their jobs.
As I already mentioned, as a former public servant and small business owner during this period, I can attest to the experiences and anecdotes raised by Ms Orr in her speech. At the time of former Prime Minister Howard’s slash-and-burn approach to the public service and Canberra, I was managing a number of hairdressing salons across Canberra. In the months following the election, I saw firsthand how the clientele base dived. My once busy appointment book became empty and business was devastated. I watched as long-term clients were no longer in a position just to swing by to get their hair done, and I watched as friends closed down their businesses.
In later years, with later Liberal governments, this trend has continued. I was working in the public service in the department of health and ageing in Woden when Tony Abbott became Prime Minister at an election where he promised to cut thousands of public servants and relegate core responsibilities to the states. Staff were subjected to a service-wide recruitment freeze, redundancies were common, and workplace morale sank.
At that time, the public service was a workplace where concepts such as doing more with less were indoctrinated into the workforce by a government that appeared ignorant of mathematical realities. Take, for example, Deputy Prime Minister Barnaby Joyce, who, in 2011, routinely disparaged the work of those at the Productivity Commission by referring to their reports as toilet paper. What about Liberal National Party Premier of Queensland Campbell Newman, who referred to shedding Queensland public service jobs as getting out the pooper scooper. Thank you for that characterisation of working people, Mr Newman. The people of Queensland obviously did not agree.
Today the trend continues. Plans to downsize and outsource our federal public service are still ongoing. Just last month, public servants at the Department of Health found out that their workplace was going to lose a further 250 jobs.
The Barr government recognises the value of a strong public service to our democracy, to our citizens and to our local economy. We have seen over 1,000 ACT public servants move into the Woden town centre. We have opened a new and improved Access Canberra office, which I would encourage members to visit.
We also recognise that Canberra can no longer trust this Australian government to support Australian public sector workers. That is why we are building our economy and diversifying our economic base. By focusing on Canberra’s potential as a popular tourist destination, a university city and an innovation and start-up hub, we are securing Canberra’s economy against the Liberal razor gang. Our tourism numbers
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