Michael McCormack (Riverina, National Party, Shadow Minister for International Development and the Pacific) Share this | Hansard source

'Critical' I hear the member for Wills say. Indeed, it is so critical that we are going to take up 5½ hours of debate, as every Labor member is told to go in and speak about this critical—as the member for Wills calls it—bill. Indeed, the Public Service is critical. I acknowledge the role that it plays and I very much concur with the member for Wills when he said that public servants work hard. They do. Whilst I the appreciate that, at times, public servants are criticised for being in the big Canberra bubble, the bureaucracy, by and large, they do work very, very hard. They get things done for and on behalf of Australians and we thank them for that. Whether that means that every Labor member needs to come in here and speak on this bill for 15 minutes, well we know why they are doing that. I will tell you why they're doing it, because they have got nothing else to do. So the manager of government business has told them, 'Get in there.' They are getting their talking points from the Labor dirt unit and they're being told to get up and speak for 15 minutes.

Those opposite could invoke the spirit of Albert Gardiner—known as 'Jupp'—a New South Wales ALP senator. He gained some fame—some might call it notoriety—by standing up in 1918 and delivering federal parliament's longest speech, 12 hours and 40 minutes. The combined Parnell-Bressington filibuster in the South Australian upper house went for over 13 hours. But what Senator Gardiner's speech did was force the introduction of the time limit on future speeches. More is a pity, because I reckon the people out there listening to the broadcast would love to hear the member for Lyons speak for a dozen hours, and I reckon he would be capable. I reckon he would be up to the task. Being a former journalist like myself, I reckon he would love that. He would relish that role.

I digress and I don't want to play down the importance of the Public Service Amendment Bill 2023. There are some things it does which are certainly very important. Noncontroversial, as we would argue, it creates a new APS value of stewardship. It creates a requirement for an Australian Public Service purpose statement to be developed by the Secretaries Board. It clarifies the operation of section 19 of the Public Service Act to provide that ministers must not direct agency heads on individual employment matters for the Australian Public Service. It requires agency heads to implement measures to create a work environment that enables decisions to be made by APS employees at the lowest appropriate classification. It provides a mechanism for the APS Commissioner to, at any time, cause the capability review of an agency other than the Australian Public Service Commission. I say this because I don't want somebody to stand up and say 'he is not being relevant'. I will continue so we can prevent that. It requires the Secretaries Board to request and publish regular long-term insights reports to make available information about medium and long term trends, risks, opportunities which affect or may affect Australia or Australian society—very important—and information and impartial analysis relating to those opportunities, risks and trends. It requires agencies to publish annual APS employee census results. It makes technical amendments consequential to the making of the Public Service Regulations 2023 following the sunsetting of the Public Service Regulation 1999—Commonwealth law.

Now, I know that all of those things are important. I get that the Public Service is important and does its due diligence and duty. This bill is important because we want the law to be updated. I get all that. I understand that. But what we've seen is the unedifying spectacle of having no Labor members on the speaking list—or very few—and all of a sudden the list is as long as Donald Bradman's batting average. From a very low starting point, it is now as long as the number of centuries he scored in first-class cricket. We're playing a bit of bazball here. Actually, we're probably not seeing bazball, because we're not actually getting things done in a hurry—more is the pity. We're not seeing Labor get on with the job of doing what they're supposed to do, and that is govern and bring legislation in. We were criticised so much during the last parliament—unfairly, with absolutely no justification—for not bringing in legislation in the House, but Labor is doing exactly what they criticised us for doing when we in fact weren't doing it. They're filibustering. They're sending in every member to speak about the Public Service as though it were the most important thing gripping this nation. I'll tell you the most important thing gripping this nation right now. It's cost of living.

People listening to this broadcast are probably wondering: 'Why aren't they talking about my electricity bill? Why aren't they talking about the labour shortages? Why aren't they talking about cost-of-living pressures? Why aren't they talking about how hard it is for business to keep its doors open?' What are we talking about? When ordinary, average, everyday Australians just want this parliament to work on making sure that their cost-of-living pressures are reduced, no, we're talking about the Public Service Amendment Bill 2023. Now, I appreciate that the Public Service is important. I get that Labor has put more money into making sure that there are more public servants. They've done it in your state, Deputy Speaker Vasta; the Queensland Labor government spent all that money, all those mining royalties, and have put in a whole lot of public servants. If they're police, ambos and firies, well and good, but the trouble is they're not. But I digress.

What we saw last week on 1 June was that we had a long, long list. At the risk of holding up a piece of paper when I shouldn't, there it is. This list meant that the opposition members who wanted to talk about the appropriation bills—they're the budget bills. With the budget bills, you get to speak about how important the budget is to your electorate. You get to speak about the things that are good. You get to speak about the things that you don't necessarily like. But no; for the first time since I've been here and no doubt since you've been here, because we've been together in this place for a long time, Deputy Speaker Vasta, the appropriation bills were guillotined. That is code for gagging. The opposition members were gagged. They gagged the members for Canning, Casey, Sturt, Independent teal Mackellar, Riverina—that's me. I was gagged. I couldn't speak for the first time.

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