Page 1775 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 8 May 2013
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business and consumer sentiment. That is the assessment from one of Australia’s leading banks when it comes to the prospects for our economy under a federal Liberal government.
These are real matters for concern. I do not like it when I see any politician from any side of the political fence bagging my city or having a go at my community and saying that in some way this is not a real place with real people, real problems, real jobs, real mortgages and real day-to-day concerns—because it is a real place. It is also the seat of government. It was established by all of us, by all Australians, through the compact that was established at the time of federation.
The challenge for us all is to stand up and say we do not accept attacks on our city, we do not accept attacks on the public service as though it is some easy mark when it comes to politicians outside of this place, and we certainly do not accept a plan which would be unimagined almost in the history of our federation when it comes to the impact on public sector employment.
It has been very interesting to see some of the assertions made by people like Mr Hanson’s friend Mr Hockey, who talks about, “You know, there’s been this terrible growth in the public service—20,000 more public service jobs than when the Liberals lost office back in 2007.” Let us have a look at those figures and all those terrible, bludging public servants, according to Mr Hockey. Well, guess what? About half of those 20,000 positions—and Mr Hanson will be interested in this—are army reservists. Joe Hockey is counting army reservists in his 20,000 increase in the size of the public service. He is counting about 10,000 or so army reservists.
How does he justify that attack on people in the army reserve? I would have thought Mr Hanson would be absolutely outraged to see this criticism and so-called waste in the increase in army reservists as part of those 20,000 people. It is quite extraordinary, but it shows the duplicity of the Liberal Party. It shows the disingenuous position that they adopt in this debate when they make those sorts of claims. They know that half of that 20,000 figure includes army reservists, but they do not care. They are just interested in mounting some sort of flimsy argument that will allow them to get stuck into the public service and our city after the next election.
We know what is going to happen. If they are elected, they are probably going to commission some sort of audit. I can probably predict now what the outcome of that audit is going to be. “Oh, surprise, surprise, there is a problem. And, oh dear, we are going to have to cut many, many more jobs than we said we would.” They have done it before. They did it in 1996-97 and they are going to do it again if they get re-elected. In 1996-97 they said, “Oh, there won’t be many job cuts.”
Members interjecting—
MADAM DEPUTY SPEAKER: Mr Corbell, sit down.
MR CORBELL: Could I ask you to stop the clock, please, Madam Deputy Speaker.
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