Nick Xenophon (SA, Independent) Share this | Hansard source

Madam Chair, if I may briefly clarify this so there is no misunderstanding, I said in my contribution earlier that the government has counted that it will slash 1,000 civilian jobs from its procurement budget, although the opposition argues those 1,000 jobs are not current jobs, simply jobs that are expected to be created in the future—in other words, the opposition claims they are phantom cuts. So I think I was fairly representing what the opposition's public position was in relation to those job cuts. I hope that clarifies any misunder­standing on Senator Ronaldson's part. I was not having a go; I was simply recounting what I understand to be the public comments of the opposition, saying that what the government says are job cuts are phantom cuts because they are not jobs that actually exist. Hopefully, there was no misunder­standing in relation to that.