Page 1774 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 May 2013
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stuck into Canberra and how they are going to cut tens of thousands of jobs from the Australian public service. They talk about the need almost willy-nilly to move federal departments out of Canberra, because this is not the real world and federal government departments should be closer, apparently, to the real people that they seek to serve.
Of course, this is grossly insulting to the people of the territory, particularly in a year where this city, the seat of the national government, the national capital of the commonwealth, celebrates its centenary. This is a time for pride in our national capital, pride in its achievements and pride in the function it performs as the seat of government for the commonwealth, a federation which is one of the most stable and longest lasting democracies in the world and which has performed in an outstanding manner to guide our country through times of trouble and travail, as well times of boom, to create a just, fair and equitable democracy for all Australians.
We hear the claims from those opposite that somehow there is no difference between measures which are designed to try and manage a budget and ups and downs in movement and what occurred in 1996. The real challenge and response to that is that there is no comparison. There is no comparison between changes in staffing that we might see in budgets from time to time and what occurred in 1996 and how that compares with what Tony Abbott is talking about today.
Let us look at what happened in 1996-97. In 1996-97, federal ongoing staffing levels decreased by 8.1 per cent, or approximately 3,300 persons. As a result of those cuts in 1996, the APS shrunk to its smallest size since 1984. Private sector employment declined by 5.2 per cent, or 4,700 people. The unemployment rate rose to a record level of 7.9 per cent and average house prices declined dramatically. Who can forget the stories that we heard time and again of Canberrans who had not only lost their job but also faced negative equity in their mortgage arrangements for their homes? Who can forget those stories? Who can forget the stories of small businesses going out of business again and again because of the collapse in confidence in the ACT economy, all as a result of the vicious cuts implemented by Howard and Costello in the 1996-97 budget?
Let us compare that with what Mr Abbott is talking about today for our city, which both he and Joe Hockey boast about repeatedly. They are not talking about the 3,300-odd persons that saw their jobs lost in 1996-97; they are talking about at least 10,000 to 12,000 jobs being lost—three times the order of the impact that we saw in 1996-97. There is no comparison between measures that might see some efficiency dividend implemented here and there and what Mr Abbott is talking about now; there is no comparison whatsoever. Those across this chamber should be ashamed if they think that they can defend this as a good thing for our city or a good thing for the communities that we seek to represent because the impact is already being seen. The impact of the prospect of these job cuts is already being seen on our local economy.
The most recent research from the ANZ indicated that the outlook for the Australian Capital Territory is weak due to the potential change of commonwealth government on 14 September this year. A change of government would likely lead to an estimated four per cent cut in employment in the ACT, with significant flow-on effects to
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