Alicia Payne (Canberra, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

With a topic this broad, there are many things where I could talk about the things that our government are doing to support Australian families, to manage our economy, to lay the foundations for future growth, to get inflation under control and to support people with the cost of living. But I want to focus particularly on an area that's really important not just for my community where I live but for all Australians around the country. I want to talk about the Australian Public Service.

I want to begin by addressing the continued attacks from those opposite on the Australian Public Service and on my community of Canberra that have just been non-stop over the last few days. We hear it in 90-second statements every day, we hear it in their speeches on legislation, and we've heard it today in this MPI—speech after speech, day after day. The people opposite are undermining the very institutions that serve all Australians and the very institutions that they seek to lead. They are suggesting that our investments to rebuild the Public Service is wasteful.

In his budget reply speech, the Leader of the Opposition had a crack at what he called 'office staff in Canberra' and said that he would reprioritise what he called 'Canberra-centric funding'. Just this week, the member for Wide Bay claimed that we are becoming a bureaucratic paradise. The member for Dawson said that we're a bloated bureaucracy that doesn't understand how the real world works. The member for Fadden complained about what he called a 'senseless proposal to take care of Canberra-centric public servants'. In fact, on Monday alone, the Hansard recorded a total of 59 occasions where coalition members used the word 'Canberra' with negative connotations—59 times in one day!

I just feel that this is part of a bigger problem for my city, my community of real people working hard every day, facing the same challenges and looking for the same opportunities that everyone else is, who then see the politicians in this place attack them and paint their city in a particular way day after day after day. It's an easy target for people. I feel that it is a real problem that it can be politically advantageous to attack Canberra in a way that is not true of any other city or town in Australia. Also, attacking the Public Service is an easy target.

But I am incredibly proud to represent so many Australian public servants who live in my electorate. It is a really special person that wants to make their career in the Australian Public Service. It is someone who has the national interest at heart. It is someone who wants to serve Australians in what they do every day. Having worked as an Australian public servant, I know that these are some of the most dedicated and professional people that you'll ever meet, working to serve governments from both sides with the same impartiality and dedication because they want to get the best outcomes for Australians. They want to get the best policies. They want to deliver services in the best way. But those opposite want to paint this false dichotomy that somehow there's—

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