Page 854 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 20 March 2019
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That is our record, in contrast to what we have been seeing as a repeated pattern of poor behaviour from the federal coalition government. But the most compelling points Ms Cheyne has raised in her motion that deserve repeating are the facts in relation to where public service jobs have gone in recent times. I commend Ms Cheyne’s motion to the Assembly.
MISS C BURCH (Kurrajong) (3.31): The Canberra Liberals will be supporting Ms Cheyne’s motion today. The Canberra Liberals have said on numerous occasions, in no uncertain terms, that we support the ongoing role of Canberra as Australia’s centre of government. We are opposed to the decentralisation of the Australian public service and we continue to be opposed to any attempts to take APS jobs out of Canberra and to take away the value that centralisation achieves. We maintain that, when decentralisation does occur, these jobs should be taken from the major cities and not from Canberra. Of course, we also supported the government’s bid to have the Australian Space Agency set up here in Canberra.
Both our ACT and federal public service employees play a crucial role in ensuring that Australia, and Canberra, remains one of the best places in the world to live and work. Whether it be our front-line staff at Access Canberra, our teachers and nurses, policy analysts, economists at treasury or serving members of our defence forces, every single one of our hardworking and dedicated public servants plays an integral role in serving our country and our community. I have said before and I say again that the very social fabric of Canberra is inextricably linked to our public service.
Canberra is the natural home of the APS. Menzies himself had a vision for Canberra as the centre of public administration and invested heavily in the ACT. To function effectively and efficiently, the APS needs to be close to government, for government. Agencies benefit from easy access to departments, to ministers and to each other. To decentralise the wealth of skills, knowledge and expertise that exists within each department is to destroy the very culture that characterises our great city. We have on many occasions condemned—and continue to condemn—any plan to move large components of the APS out of Canberra.
As Ms Cheyne has also indicated in her motion, it is not only APS employees in Canberra who work to serve our country and our government. Many private sector entities, for-purpose organisations and tertiary institutions based in our city also support our public service, serve our community and contribute to the cultural fabric of Canberra and the ACT economy.
Senator Zed Seselja has fought incredibly hard to keep jobs in Canberra. He has also fought hard to keep APS jobs in our town centres and to move jobs into our town centres where they have not previously existed. Having federal and local agencies and departments in our town centres helps local businesses thrive, something this motion calls on the ACT government to do more of and, again, something we strongly support.
Senator Seselja fought to ensure that the then Department of Immigration remained in Belconnen. He fought to ensure that the Department of Social Services remained in
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