Josh Dolega (Tasmania, Australian Labor Party) | Hansard source

It is World Public Service Day. I would like to sincerely thank everyone who has chosen a career in public service. Public servants devote their time and their energy to serving our communities, delivering essential services and making an overall positive impact. I've spent most of my working life being a proud public servant and fighting for their rights as a CPSU delegate and organiser, despite the best attempts of those opposite to shamefully politicise, undermine and cut the Public Service.

The Public Service is particularly important for regional and rural communities like my home town of Devonport, Tasmania, in the electorate of Braddon. The public servant's deep understanding of local communities is why they're so important. Not only do they provide a voice for their local communities but they also ensure equitable access to essential services to safeguard community welfare and inform the operational backbone of government departments, whether state, federal or local. The private sector simply cannot replicate the unique connection public servants have with local communities. The Public Service also provides evidence based, apolitical, frank and fearless advice to governments, upholding democratic integrity.

I'd also like to highlight the crucial role that the Community and Public Sector Union has played in making the Public Service one of the fairest, effective and stable workplaces. The CPSU has helped secure some of the best employment conditions and fought hard to ensure the Public Service's workforce reflects that of our great achievements in this country. Unlike those opposite, who wasted billions of dollars on labour hire and outsourcing of public services in their final year, we have strengthened public services because we value them. We value the commitment to the work that they do every single day, and we value the advice that they give us. So, on World Public Service Day, I say thank you to public services and to public servants for everything that you do.