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

and this proves that it is gentler—thank you, Member for Mallee. It's supposed to be a more gentle place as well, but it's not because, when you can't actually get up and speak on the budget bills and speak to your electorate and have your electorate listen to how the budget will affect them, more's the pity.

There were some things in a budget which the member for Mallee and I probably agreed with. There were some things in there which will, yes, make the lives, the lots and the livelihoods of people in regional Australia a little bit better. I tell you what: there was a lot there which was not good at all. But I wasn't able to enunciate that because I was gagged, as were all of those other members who did not get the opportunity, and that is just so wrong. That is so wrong. Yet here we are on a Tuesday evening. We're going to be talking till the adjournment, and tomorrow we'll be resuming, and what will we be talking about? It'll be the Public Service Amendment Bill.

We won't be talking about the cost of living. We won't be talking about Labor's broken promise—the $275 that they said, without clarification, every household would be getting off their power bills. No, we won't be talking about that. We won't be talking about the truckie tax. We won't be talking about why the cost of groceries is higher every time people go to the supermarket. We won't be talking about all the things that matter to ordinary, average, everyday Australians who are doing it so tough. But what will we be talking about? The Public Service Amendment Bill 2023.

And when those Labor members go back to their electorates next week and they bump into people in the street and they go into small businesses which won't be having their instant asset write-off in an unlimited fashion—it's only $20,000; that was in the budget, but I wasn't able to talk about that. When they go into those small businesses or into that pharmacy, good luck there. I hope you've had your flu jab. They'll be shutting soon because of the 60-day dispensing rules. When you go into those small businesses and people front up to you and say, 'Well, what did you do in parliament last week?' I want you to look them in the eye and make sure you earnestly say, 'I spoke about the Public Service Amendment Bill 2023, because that's really going to affect your life. It's really going to make a difference in how you live your life in coming days and weeks and months and years.'

Never mind the budget. Never mind what went on in the member for Rankin's speech. You spoke about the Public Service Amendment Bill 2023. And when they say, 'Well, what did that involve?' you'll be able to say, 'Well, in 2018 the coalition government commissioned an independent review of the Australian Public Service to ensure it is best placed to serve Australian governments and the Australian people into the future, and Mr David Thodey AO, former CEO of Telstra and then chair of CSIRO, was appointed to lead the review. The review received more than 750 submissions. It involved more than 120 round tables,' and they'll say, 'Well, you should go down to the racecourse because you read that like a race caller.'

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