Page 194 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 26 February 2014
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MR GENTLEMAN (Brindabella) (3.46): I rise today to discuss the importance of jobs in the ACT. As we sit here today in the chamber we know from recent news reports that the federal Liberal government is actively working towards removing the powers and rights of workers. With the introduction of new workplace laws, the undermining of unions and current conditions and, as we have previously heard in this chamber this morning, a commission of audit into the public service, the main aim of which is to force out 12,000 employees, catastrophic consequences will be created for our local economy.
We can all remember what happened to the ACT economy during the Howard era. I saw the creation of the departure longue for the department of admin services staff at the government printing office. I witnessed also what was known as “death by PowerPoint”, where hundreds of defence public servants were taken into a room and a PowerPoint was displayed showing as available in the future only half the number of positions. If your name was not there you were no longer employed. Then there was the Comcar interview where you were sat down, read three lines and left the room without a job, provided only with a cab fare home. Some 120 permanent drivers were made redundant.
I quote my federal parliamentary colleagues Senator Lundy, Dr Leigh and Ms Brodtmann, who last year reminded us that from 1996 federal ongoing staffing levels decreased by 8.1 per cent across the ACT. That was just the beginning. In the Canberra Times on 3 April last year it was shown that between 1996 and 2000 the Howard Liberal government cut around 32,000 jobs from the APS. The impact of the 20,000 job cuts flagged by Tony Abbott will be far greater as it is just the beginning. Currently we have no idea how far the Abbot coalition government will go.
I recall an answer to a question without notice in this place from then Chief Minister Kate Carnell stating that comments about 30,000 job losses and so on were way off the side of the graph and certainly not in line with the budget papers themselves. But that is, in fact, what we saw as those jobs left our economy, and not just one by one but by thousands.
Once again I refer to my federal parliamentary colleagues last year stating that as a result of the Howard cuts in 1996-97, the APS in Canberra shrank to its smallest size since 1984. In 1996-97 private sector employment in the ACT declined by 5.2 per cent or 4,700 jobs for our ACT residents, the same residents who elected us to serve them. This impact was far worse than what the territory experienced during the global financial crisis. The ACT’s unemployment rate rose to a record level of 7.9 per cent in 1996-97. The Real Estate Institute of Australia stated the median house price decreased by four per cent between March 1995 and March 1998, while we saw the average for capital cities and Australia as a whole grow by 17 and 15 per cent respectively.
This is a stark comparison to the work the Gallagher government will do to continue to ensure jobs are retained in our local community. Through the last several years the construction industry in the ACT has seen steady growth with various government programs at both the federal and territory levels. The ACT construction sector has
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