Page 1822 - Week 05 - Thursday, 10 May 2018
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If that was not enough, the federal government has now also announced a review of the APS. I do not know about you, but when I read the open letter to the public service announcing the review I was put on guard, and many others would have been too. I thought the letter’s pleasantries thinly veiled a foreshadowing of serious changes in the APS. I do not think any of us in this place will be surprised if we hear the words “efficiencies”, “cuts” and “privatisation” bandied around in the near future. All members in this place must be vigilant and continue to fight for Canberra as the centre of the federal public service.
All of these efforts by the federal government continue to undermine Canberra and overlook the fact that Canberra is a regional centre itself. In fact, we are arguably the greatest regional success story in Australia. In the early 1900s the decision was made that the federal parliament would be located not in Sydney or Melbourne but here, over 100 years ago. Now that rural site, Canberra, is a thriving, regional, diverse centre with a strong and increasingly growing economy.
When it comes to creating jobs, stimulating an economy and bolstering business confidence, the ACT is a leader. The federal government should be taking some tips from us in how to do it. We have the lowest unemployment rate in the country. In 2016-17 our economy grew by 4.6 per cent, the fastest of all states and territories. Business confidence is the highest in Australia, and over 10,000 jobs were created in the ACT in 2017. Yes, created—not moved to us.
Unlike any other region, Canberra, the nation’s capital, is the centre of the national administrative expertise and the natural home of the federal government. This proximity enables departments and agencies to work closely together more easily and more coherently. Canberra is a city that has developed around the public service into the city best suited for the needs of the Australian Public Service.
Our first-rate institutions and great opportunities for work have made Canberra Australia’s pinnacle in public administration. The public servants working here are experienced, well-qualified, intelligent professionals, all with a proven dedication to doing the best for the entire country. I was very privileged in my previous career to work with so many of them. The decentralisation of the APS to other regional areas will only cause the loss of these dependable, committed individuals and the invaluable knowledge that they hold. An agenda of piecemeal fracturing of the public service will only dilute the effectiveness of the public service without transplanting the benefits.
Decentralisation threatens good policy development. Australian federalism requires a central strategic capability that is agile and able to respond to crisis and new ideas. The agenda to fracture this central capability risks undermining the quality and legitimacy of national policy development. We have watched this warning play out with the move of the APVMA to Armidale. Only a handful of staff have completed the move so far, but the agency’s workforce is haemorrhaging. With the loss of more than 100 staff, including 33 regulatory scientists, goes hundreds of years of combined service, knowledge, competence and capability. And to add salt to the wound the federal government is spending $25 million on the relocation of the APVMA. That
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