Gary Humphries (ACT, Liberal Party) Share this | Hansard source

Like Senator Lundy, I want to talk about issues affecting the Australian Capital Territory which I feel will be very pertinent to the federal election that will be held in the next 12 months. Although the election campaign will no doubt include industrial relations, interest rates, economic management and so on, I think it is worth flagging at this point that there will be a very clear additional issue within the context of the ACT—that is, federal Labor’s plan to slash investment in the national capital, particularly in relation to the Australian Public Service.

Although a dynamic and resilient private sector has developed in Canberra over the last decade, it would be wrong to suggest that the ACT economy is no longer dependent on the Australian Public Service employment base. To put this in perspective, there are around 180,000 people employed in the ACT, and over 52,000 of them—29 per cent of the workforce—are employed in the Australian Public Service. Thirty-five per cent of all Australian Public Service employees work in Canberra.

How do we know that Labor intends to reduce public servant numbers if elected at next year’s election? The answer is in some pretty explicit comments that have been made by Mr Lindsay Tanner, Labor’s shadow finance minister—and, rumour has it, possibly Labor’s next shadow Treasurer. Mr Tanner is a member of Labor’s expenditure review committee—in other words, its razor gang.