Page 851 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 March 2019
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continue to diversify the economy, supporting innovation and entrepreneurialism, fostering the creation of more private sector jobs and a greater variety of jobs too.
We continue to encourage investment in the ACT and attract interstate and international tourism. You only have to look at premier events like Floriade, Enlighten, the Canberra Comedy Festival—right outside—and The Forage as examples. We continue to support our workforce through a pipeline of major infrastructure projects such as the light rail network and the University of Canberra Hospital. All the while, we continue to advocate for the Australian public service fiercely, passionately and unashamedly.
As the federal coalition government continues to plunder the nation’s capital, the natural home, the sensible home, of the Australian public service, I will continue to stand up in this chamber and demand that it scrap this misconceived strategy. The longer the federal coalition government fails to open its eyes or, at the very least, provide detail and certainty about its misguided plans, the longer more Canberra public servants and their families are left in the dark.
The uncertainty is galling; the uncertainty is stressful; and the uncertainty needs to stop. So far, misguided decentralisation has not just created upheaval in Canberra and in Canberrans’ lives. It has risked undermining the efficiency of the Australian public service. In fact, I would go so far as to say that it is has undermined very critical areas of the Australian public service. Arguably, it has had minimal or negligible impact on regional Australia. All the while, the federal coalition government has continued to view our public servants as pawns rather than as people.
This is why I stand again in this chamber to condemn the federal government’s policy of decentralisation, a policy that has served as a pork-barrelling exercise, a policy that has put politicians ahead of the people they are supposed to represent, a policy that risks undermining the ability of public servants to carry out their jobs effectively, and a policy that attacks and undermines this city and its people.
I call on all members of this chamber to stand up and speak up on behalf of their constituents in every way possible, in every forum possible, to speak up for the public sector staff and the many other industries and people that rely on these staff. I call on people in this place to stand up for this city. I call on the federal coalition government to recognise Canberra as the appropriate home of the Australian public service. Stop playing games; stop moving people like chess pieces; enough is enough. I commend this motion to the Assembly.
MR BARR (Kurrajong—Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Social Inclusion and Equality, Minister for Tourism and Special Events and Minister for Trade, Industry and Investment) (3.21): I thank Ms Cheyne for bringing this matter forward. It is a timely debate in this chamber today as we get to the final days and weeks of this current federal parliament and we see increasingly desperate moves to pork-barrel regional seats held by the National Party. It is possible that even members of the Liberal Party in this chamber would be frustrated by the behaviour of the National Party in their coalition. It clearly has been destructive.
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