Mr REED - 2001-11-28
Madam Speaker, I ask for the third time, given that she has determined the precise dollar amounts of savings that are going to accrue from changes to the public service; given that she has directed CEOs in relation to the staffing levels as regards their specific areas of responsibility; and given that there are public servants listening on their monitors to this parliamentary broadcast who are concerned about their future, will she - without believing that she is still behind an ABC microphone, that in fact is the Chief Minister behind the parliamentary microphone - please advise public servants what the cuts? If they are not 1500 - the 10% of the 15 000 public servants that she said on ABC radio yesterday, what precisely are they? Public servants deserve an answer and you are the only one who can give it.
Madam SPEAKER: Could we have your question quickly? Come on, let us stop the rambling of questions. Let us get them short, sharp and shiny, and answers.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, this question has been asked again, and we have a former Treasurer who does not seem to understand. Who does not understand that there are no staffing differences between the May budget and this one.
Mr Reed: Well, why did you not publish them?
Ms MARTIN: This is an amendment to your budget. It does not have all the things that you had in your budget. It is an amendment to your budget; it is in a different format. The salary costs are contained in the budget papers and there is no difference in that. We do have amalgamations.
Mr Reed: Where are the cuts coming from?
Ms MARTIN: You should be looking more carefully. The salary costs are contained and we have the Henny Penny mark II sitting next to the Henny Penny mark I, trying to do anything but actually grasp the fact that this is a very responsible and fair mini-budget; that because you consistently grew deficits year after year, irresponsibly, trying to pretend that there were no deficits and then at the end of the year saying: ‘Whoops, we have got to $91m. Whoops, we have got to $149m’, and as we see for this year: ‘Whoops, we have got to $139m’. Yes, we have to make savings across government agencies ...
Mr Reed: How are you going to make them? What is the detail?
Ms MARTIN: What a shame we did not ask the former Treasurer to the workshops that were held to show how government can be more efficient. Government, yes, can be more efficient. You never tried very hard; we will. Government can be more efficient, government can be more effective ...
Mr Reed: So they are inefficient? Public servants are inefficient? They’ll be pleased to hear that on their monitors.
Ms MARTIN: ... but there are three principles about this which are being carefully outlined ...
Mr Reed: Keep going, please!
Ms MARTIN: Settle down!
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Katherine!
Ms MARTIN: ... that have been carefully outlined to CEOs and to the public sector that improved services is what this government is all about. Staff morale and greater confidence of staff in their career developments, in their career opportunities, is of paramount concern, and that CEOs will live within their budgets. Not like the previous culture we had, where budget allocations to agencies were way below what their actuals were - way below - and so you had CEOs having to come back and say to the Treasurer: ‘Can I have some more money?’ We saw the way you fudged the figures, we saw the way you fudged it. You fudged it in health and you fudged it in education, and we are going to get to the bottom of how many times you fudged it, how many times you presented dishonest figures to Territorians. You will be outed, former Treasurer, you will be outed here.
Let me say again, to our Territory public servants: there are no forced redundancies, there is no program of voluntary redundancies, there are no job losses. We will manage this process carefully, we will manage this process with great integrity and that really will distinguish us, this new Labor government, from the previous CLP.
Madam SPEAKER: Could we have your question quickly? Come on, let us stop the rambling of questions. Let us get them short, sharp and shiny, and answers.
ANSWER
Madam Speaker, this question has been asked again, and we have a former Treasurer who does not seem to understand. Who does not understand that there are no staffing differences between the May budget and this one.
Mr Reed: Well, why did you not publish them?
Ms MARTIN: This is an amendment to your budget. It does not have all the things that you had in your budget. It is an amendment to your budget; it is in a different format. The salary costs are contained in the budget papers and there is no difference in that. We do have amalgamations.
Mr Reed: Where are the cuts coming from?
Ms MARTIN: You should be looking more carefully. The salary costs are contained and we have the Henny Penny mark II sitting next to the Henny Penny mark I, trying to do anything but actually grasp the fact that this is a very responsible and fair mini-budget; that because you consistently grew deficits year after year, irresponsibly, trying to pretend that there were no deficits and then at the end of the year saying: ‘Whoops, we have got to $91m. Whoops, we have got to $149m’, and as we see for this year: ‘Whoops, we have got to $139m’. Yes, we have to make savings across government agencies ...
Mr Reed: How are you going to make them? What is the detail?
Ms MARTIN: What a shame we did not ask the former Treasurer to the workshops that were held to show how government can be more efficient. Government, yes, can be more efficient. You never tried very hard; we will. Government can be more efficient, government can be more effective ...
Mr Reed: So they are inefficient? Public servants are inefficient? They’ll be pleased to hear that on their monitors.
Ms MARTIN: ... but there are three principles about this which are being carefully outlined ...
Mr Reed: Keep going, please!
Ms MARTIN: Settle down!
Madam SPEAKER: Member for Katherine!
Ms MARTIN: ... that have been carefully outlined to CEOs and to the public sector that improved services is what this government is all about. Staff morale and greater confidence of staff in their career developments, in their career opportunities, is of paramount concern, and that CEOs will live within their budgets. Not like the previous culture we had, where budget allocations to agencies were way below what their actuals were - way below - and so you had CEOs having to come back and say to the Treasurer: ‘Can I have some more money?’ We saw the way you fudged the figures, we saw the way you fudged it. You fudged it in health and you fudged it in education, and we are going to get to the bottom of how many times you fudged it, how many times you presented dishonest figures to Territorians. You will be outed, former Treasurer, you will be outed here.
Let me say again, to our Territory public servants: there are no forced redundancies, there is no program of voluntary redundancies, there are no job losses. We will manage this process carefully, we will manage this process with great integrity and that really will distinguish us, this new Labor government, from the previous CLP.
Last updated: 09 Aug 2016