Lisa Chesters (Bendigo, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

Oh, the hypocrisy of those opposite when it comes to their rhetoric about decentralisation. We have had National Party MPs and senators out there saying that they are the party of the bush and they are going to bring public service jobs to the bush. Let us check their track record since they got elected in relation to job cuts to regional areas like Bendigo. First, the 100 per cent Australian-taxpayer-owned Australia Post shut down the Bendigo mail centre, so now the mail that arrives in Bendigo sits on a platform, is put on a truck and is bussed all the way down to the other side of Melbourne, to Dandenong, to be sorted; then it is put back on a truck and brought back up to Bendigo—what a disgrace. Then we have the Bendigo tax office, which was shut down by this government. People in central and northern Victoria are told that they should go to Melbourne if they need support. Those are more public sector jobs lost. Then we have the job cuts at Centrelink, hitting our smart centre and our call centre, with casuals being laid off and full-time people being laid off when wait times of blowing out. Those are more public sector jobs lost to the Bendigo electorate. Finally, the government shut down the Australian Emergency Management Institute. In a bushfire-risk area they shut down this facility on Mount Macedon, costing 60 jobs. The government are not serious about public sector jobs in the region. If they were they were, they would restore every job they have cut since they have been elected.