Gai Brodtmann (Canberra, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Defence) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Just following on from the discussion before this debate, I would like to add my congratulations and thanks to former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. Kevin achieved an incredible amount in his time as Prime Minister. He achieved so much, in fact, that often some of what might be considered his smaller achievements are overlooked, and I want to mention just one of those tonight.

In 2008, then Prime Minister Rudd announced a reform package for organ and tissue donation worth more than $150 million, which included establishing the Australian Organ and Tissue Donation and Transplantation Authority. These reforms have seen Australia's organ and tissue donation rates improve significantly. The reforms have meant that Australians everywhere are now having a conversation with their loved ones about organ and tissue donation. There is still a lot of work to be done in this area, but the reforms introduced by Prime Minister Rudd have well and truly put us on the right track. On behalf of all Australians, I thank him for that and wish him well in his retirement.

Despite the fact that about 83 to 90 per cent of Australians support the concept of organ and tissue donation, about half of that number actually go through with the wishes of loved ones who have expressed a will to donate their organs and tissues when they pass away. I understand that when you are in the process of grieving it can be quite confronting to consider the possibility of making your loved one who has just passed away an organ and tissue donor. As I said, between 80 and 90 per cent of Australians support the concept of organ and tissue donation, yet half of that number actually carry through with the wishes of their loved ones. So I encourage Australians to have the conversation with their loved ones to find out their intentions and to uphold the intentions of their loved ones at the time of their passing.

I understand the grief that people go through—I do understand that—but this is the gift of life. Organ and tissue donation is the gift of life, and organ and tissue donation from one particular person can save up to 10 lives. It can give sight back to people. Skin is vitally important for people who have had burns or major operations. Organs—of course, we have all heard stories about hearts that have saved lives and kidneys that have saved lives. This can have a life-changing effect on many, many Australians—up to 10 Australians. One organ donor can have a huge impact on up to 10 Australians. So I encourage Australians to live out the legacy that former Prime Minister Rudd left us with by establishing this authority that is now coordinating organ and tissue donation like never before.

It has brought together the medical professionals who do the organ donations in the hospitals. It has brought together people out there, people like I was. In my former life, I was a voluntary member of the board of the Gift of Life, and we were out there raising awareness and raising funds for organ and tissue donation. It has brought all those organisations together right throughout the country—because there are many people like me who are very passionate about this issue. It has brought us all together to speak with one voice and constantly reinforce the message. So I encourage Australians to have the conversation with their loved ones. Once they decide to donate their organs and tissues should they pass away, please, please uphold their wishes.

On another matter, I am seriously aggrieved—severely aggrieved—about the disdain that is being shown towards my electorate of Canberra by this new Abbott government. Prior to the election, the then Leader of the Opposition, now Prime Minister Abbott, made no secret of his disdain for Canberra. He announced that his plans for Canberra included cutting 12,000 public service jobs as 'a starting point', although both he and his Treasurer suggested on more than one occasion that they believed that the public service should shed up to 20,000 jobs. He also said that he would like to move at least one entire government agency from Canberra to Gosford, as well as the possible removal of thousands more public service jobs from Canberra to various locations, including Tasmania, Geelong and numerous Northern Australian cities. Finally, he announced on the eve of the election that he would not only keep the public service efficiency dividend—which his colleagues here constantly derided me about over the course of the last three years—but he would increase it by 0.25 per cent.

Prime Minister Abbott was clear prior to the election about his plans to hurt Canberra. Accordingly, and since the September poll, Canberrans have been bracing themselves, waiting to find out the detail of these plans. They have been waiting to find out where and when the jobs will be cut—which departments are going to be moved interstate and whether they will have a job this Christmas. Deputy Speaker, we are talking 12,000 jobs in a city of about 360,000 people. It would not be acceptable anywhere else in this country. Why is it acceptable here in Canberra? However, some 72 days since the federal election, Canberrans are none the wiser about his plans. They still do not know when, where or how the axe is going to fall.

The government has not, however, been entirely silent on the public service since the election. In fact, it has made a number of announcements, but without providing details of whether someone is still going to have a job before Christmas. Those announcements have included machinery of government changes that involve scrapping and merging various government departments, notably abolishing the Department of Regional Australia, Local Government, Arts and Sport; integrating AusAID into the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade; abolishing the Major Cities and Social Inclusion units within the Department of Prime Minister and Cabinet; and splitting the Department of Education and Workplace Relations. An indefinite hiring freeze has also been announced that has thrown the jobs of thousands of contractors and non-ongoing employees into doubt, including up to 1400 jobs of scientists and people who do impressive work that is exported to the world. These are 1400 jobs at the CSIRO.

The government has also cancelled the AusAID graduate program, quashing the hopes of talented young Australians who have been successful in a very competitive recruitment process and who have turned down other job offers to take on these worthwhile positions. None of these announcements has provided Canberrans with any more certainty. In fact, all they have done is provide more questions. Perhaps the question Canberrans most want answered is: how the 12,000 plus jobs are going to be cut? Prior to the election, Prime Minister Abbott stated very clearly that any job cuts would be made through natural attrition—that is, waiting until someone retires or resigns of their own volition and then simply not replacing them. In a joint doorstop interview of 14 July in Homebush, Prime Minister Abbott was asked directly about the reduction of the public sector payroll and how it would be achieved and specifically whether there would be any involuntary redundancies. His response was clear: it would all be through natural attrition. His loyal foot soldier in Canberra, ACT Liberal senator Zed Seselja, also promised that all job losses would be through natural attrition. On 4 July this year, on 666 radio here, he said that the coalition have:

On 9 July, also on 666 radio, Zed Seselja, said:

And on 5 August:

Further, on 31 August:

Despite the promise of only using natural attrition, there have been reports of post-election redundancies in at least five government departments, including the Attorney-General's Department, Department of the Treasury, Department of Finance, Department of the Environment and Department of Health.

This has left Canberrans asking many, many questions. While Prime Minister Abbott has been up-front about his planned cuts, he has also promised that they will only be through natural attrition. What will actually be happening?

There are redundancies now happening, but there has been no explanation from the government as to why the change of policy or any detail about how many redundancies will be made, in what areas and over what time frame.

Canberrans deserve to know how many jobs will be cut, in what areas, over what time frame and what it will mean. And they deserve to know whether or not they will have a job at Christmas. (Time expired)