Doug Cameron (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I move:

That the Senate take note of the document.

In moving to take note of the State of the service report 2009-10, I note that the report says that employee identity perceptions within the public sector are very high. Workers in the public sector are proud of working in the public sector, they are proud to work in the APS, they would recommend their work agency as a good place to work and they would recommend the APS as a good place to work. Over the 2½ years I have been here, I have been really surprised at the talent and diversity and capacity of the public service to act in the national interest. Nothing will be more important in the forthcoming period, when we have to deal with the floods in Queensland, the flooding in northern New South Wales, the fires in Western Australia and the flooding in Victoria, than having the public service operate effectively and efficiently to deliver the restructuring and rebuilding of this country.

That is why I am concerned that we still have the opposition arguing for cuts to the Australian Public Service. The policy that they took to the election was that there should be no replacement of anyone who leaves the Australian Public Service. This would create great problems within the Public Service. At a time of national disaster, a time when the national interest must come first, I call on the opposition to say that they will ensure that the resources in the public sector are supported. They should be supporting the work of public servants.

I do not normally quote the Australian but I will quote the Weekend Australian of 5 February because it said:

In confronting the economic impact of the floods and the cyclone, Ms Gillard is facing the competing aims of funding billions of dollars in reconstruction while boosting the government’s economic credentials by working to return the budget to surplus. So far, she has got the balance right.

Rupert Murdoch and the Australianthey recognise that what we are doing, in association with the work that the Australian Public Service will have to be involved in, is correct and best thing that can be done.

It really does highlight the narrow-minded, venal approach of the opposition to the flood levy and the lack of support they have for the Australian Public Service when we are about a national issue of such importance—that being to ensure that we can reconstruct this country; that we can rebuild those areas that have been devastated—yet all we have is carping criticism. That carping criticism, I predict, will be vented on public servants at the next round of estimates when the coalition set about trying to vilify the Public Service and the issues that they have taken on board under very extreme circumstances. The Public Service of this country have stood up well in most of areas. There have been areas with problems.

I want to place on record my support for the Public Service, who helped this government manage through the global financial crisis—when the opposition tried to deny there ever was one—and who will help us work our way through the program that will be required to rebuild Queensland, Victoria, northern New South Wales and Western Australia, given the problems we have faced over the summer period.

I think the Public Service have done well. The Public Service were instrumental in providing support to the government so we could deal with the global financial crisis in a timely, temporary and targeted manner that meant hundreds of thousands of jobs were saved and we came out of the global financial crisis better than any other country in the world. That was a combination of this government taking the steps that were required and working with a professional Public Service, a Public Service who should be supported, not attacked by the opposition as they normally are. I seek leave to continue my remarks later.

Leave granted; debate adjourned.