Page 1820 - Week 05 - Thursday, 10 May 2018
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weakening the position, influence and effectiveness of the public service so that they can cut more funding, cut more jobs, and eventually sell it off altogether.
Setting up public services in other capital cities or regional centres makes sense in some circumstances. I agree with this 100 per cent. It made 100 per cent sense for the Albury-Wodonga Development Corporation to be located in Albury-Wodonga. Government-led job creation in other regional centres is important, but it should not be as the result of forced relocations or decentralisations of current workplaces that just leave workers worse off, laid off or less able to do their job.
Keeping our public service expertise in our capital makes really good sense. It is a pretty standard practice in the private sector to consolidate your staff so that they can share knowledge and services, have quick meetings and develop a corporate community. That is, of course, the role that Canberra plays for our public service. We are the hub; we are the apex; we are where people get together. We should also reflect on the fact that at present a bit less than 40 per cent of commonwealth staff are employed in the ACT. Nobody is suggesting for one instance that all commonwealth staff should be employed in the ACT, and they never have been. It is just that the ACT is the centre; it was designed to be the centre, and it should continue to be the centre and the hub. It is a hub for our APS community, and this is one of the things that keeps the public service one of the world’s best and brightest.
I will touch briefly on a slightly different aspect of having the public service in Canberra. This is the symbolic aspect of having a central place that represents the national government. This used to be the parliamentary precinct between the lake and Parliament House. The reason I say “used to be” is because the commonwealth government has been recently been selling off buildings in this area—the East Block and the West block offices. West Block is now going to be a five-star hotel. I am not against hotels, but the symbolic significance of putting one in the parliamentary precinct just below Parliament House is, sadly, that well-off people can get excellent access to federal Parliament and less well-off people do not get quite as good access.
There are other things that we could put in the parliamentary precinct instead that would be much more appropriate—the Australian Electoral Commission would be a good example because independent election bodies are crucial for our democracy. One or other of our public broadcasters could have been moved into the parliamentary precinct, which would then symbolise the role of the media as such an important check on the power of government and such an important way to ensure that our government remains accountable to the people and to the parliaments.
The consolidation of government services in Canberra and, by extension, state government public services in their respective capital cities is, in general, a positive. It allows for more interaction, more collaboration, a better lifestyle for their workers, and—in the words that every Liberal loves and repeats—efficiencies of scale and proximity.
The bottom line, though, is that where public servants work should not be up to short-term decisions by politicians. Just because Barnaby Joyce was worried about his electoral prospects and wanted to make sure there was significant pork-barrelling in
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