Page 3253 - Week 11 - Tuesday, 17 September 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
efficiencies being sought for the public service. The appointment of Senator Abetz to the role of assisting on matters of public service means that this is already being given a very prominent focus in the Abbott government. We do remain concerned about the way that those efficiencies will be sought to be delivered. It is unclear to the ACT government at this point in time how those efficiencies will be gained and what will be the timetable for them. All we have to go on is the comments that have been made during the election campaign and over the last three years.
I do hope that we will be able to engage in positive dialogue with the Prime Minister and his team, and always urge him to act in the interests of the Canberra community just as he will be acting in the interests of a range of local communities around Australia. Canberra is no different from any other community, and it deserves the respect and consideration of the Prime Minister as he rolls out his agenda in government. I would hope that we would have universal agreement across the Assembly for that.
There are some other areas. The announced cuts to NICTA are deeply concerning. That is a $42 million cut over the next two years. I think there are some genuine concerns about whether NICTA would be able to continue in the way that it has with that magnitude of cuts.
In terms of our agenda going forward, the government will continue unchanged on the commitments that we went to the election with. We will continue to roll out DisabilityCare and the better schools plan, and we will work with the commonwealth and look for commonwealth support as we continue with our plans around the University of Canberra public hospital; our plans for capital metro light rail; some of our regional interests, including roads in the region; in support of the work that the Treasurer and Deputy Chief Minister has been doing around direct international flights to the city—and we look forward to continuing to work with the airport on that—and, of course, greater support for the National Capital Authority and the national institutions in this town.
If there are to be significant cuts to the public service and to the expenditure from the commonwealth government in the ACT economy, we would expect that there would be significant structural adjustment provided to the ACT from the commonwealth government, just as there is for every other community when they undergo significant adjustments in terms of jobs and industries in their own local economy. (Time expired.)
MADAM SPEAKER: A supplementary question, Ms Porter.
MS PORTER: Chief Minister, what has the government done or what is it doing to make sure that the ACT’s priorities are heard with the change of government?
MS GALLAGHER: I thank Ms Porter for the question. The government has been a very vocal advocate for our community over many months in the lead-up to and in the days since the federal election. I made representations to both leaders during the campaign in terms of priorities for the ACT community. I have requested a meeting with Prime Minister Abbott as soon as possible. I understand he will have competing
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video