GG 09/13
07 February 2013
Tony Abbott’s ‘vision’ for developing northern Australia is a rehash of old ideas and targets one of the best public service operations in the world, the Minister for the Public Service, Gary Gray, said today.
“The Opposition’s simplistic ‘thought bubble’ of arbitrarily relocating substantial parts of the Australian Public Service is bad policy and would have dire consequences,” Mr Gray said.
“I read with some amusement and then growing alarm the Opposition’s so-called ‘vision’.
“Northern Australia is full of possibilities, with great communities and terrific opportunities. It is a great place to live, work, do business and care for families.
“But the leaked Coalition document reveals the Liberals’ secret and expensive plan to force Australians to move north of the Tropic of Capricorn and to slug families in our major cities to pay for it.”
The document says:
“In its first term, the Coalition proposes (to) relocate substantial and relevant components of Federal departments and Commonwealth agencies, such as CSIRO, to key urban areas in northern Australia.”
Mr Gray said nearly 60 per cent of the nation’s public servants worked in capital cities and regional centres outside of Canberra.
There are more than:
“The location of Australian public servants is about effective and efficient service delivery,” Mr Gray said. “In 2012, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development declared that the Australian Public Service was an exemplar for public service efficiency.”
The OECD said:
‘Australia is an example for the other Value for Money countries’, including the Netherlands, Denmark, New Zealand and the United Kingdom.
“Our public servants are working every hour of every day of every week to make sure that Australians from Gladstone to Broome, from Hobart to Darwin, across the country and around the globe get the help they need.
“With flood and fire sweeping through many parts of the country, it is, once again, thousands of public sector workers who have swung into action, working overtime to help people deal with desperate situations.
But now we find the Opposition has targeted all these jobs for relocation under its ‘dreamy scheme’ for the Far North.
| Media Contact: | Website: |
|---|---|
| John Arthur - 0408 991 261 | www.smos.gov.au |