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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-09-18 Daily Xml
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PUBLIC SECTOR EMPLOYEES

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (15:04): My question is to the Minister for Public Employment. Why did the Commissioner for Public Employment, Warren McCann, tell the estimates committee in 2009 that 12,000 vacancies arise through natural attrition each year if it is only 6,000 as stated by the Premier today? In estimates in 2009, Warren McCann told the parliament:

It is useful to consider if it is in the context of the number of people who leave the public sector each year. This has increased slightly over the last three years from 10,000 in 2005, 12,000 in 2006 and 12,000 in 2007. During the course of the year, 12,000 vacancies arise through natural attrition.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Minister for State Development) (15:04): This is precisely the point that I made in the answer to my question. Almost half—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —of those are to leave to go to other Public Service positions, so you cannot rely upon them—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. I.F. EVANS: Point of order, Madam Speaker. Just so the Premier is clear—

The SPEAKER: Order! You do not need to repeat your question.

The Hon. I.F. EVANS: I think that he must have misheard me, because Warren McCann clearly says 'who leave the public sector each year'—

The SPEAKER: Order! Sit down!

The Hon. I.F. EVANS: —'who leave the'—

The SPEAKER: Member for Davenport, sit down! You have asked your question. The Premier is quite clear on your question.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Thank you, Madam Speaker. The difficulty for the Leader of the Opposition—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —is that she has based the policy of her party on a factual error.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: She has based the policy of her party on a factual error, and this goes to the heart of the point that we make about those opposite: they are inexperienced because they have never been ministers.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: They are incompetent because they have never—

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Stuart.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: Not only is the Premier fallaciously applying policy—falsely, sorry, falsely applying policy, it is clearly debate.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Stuart. Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Madam Speaker, this is a very important point because, for her numbers to add up, she needs to find savings in the public sector, and if only half of the 12,000 are, in fact, exiting from the public sector then—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —there is a—

Dr McFetridge interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morphett, order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —hole. I think that those opposite have had a disservice done to them in the last few days in some of the public comment. It has been suggested that they have made a gaffe. I think that is a little unfair on the Leader of the Opposition because I think they have been telling the truth to the South Australian people. They have told us the truth about the number of jobs they are going to cut. We know that the Deputy Leader of the Opposition has said that everyone is behind her, and we also know from the alternative leader—

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker. I do expect the Premier to misrepresent me regularly, but the question was about him misrepresenting Warren McCann.

The SPEAKER: Order! Premier, I think you are starting to stray from the question.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Yes, I will go back. The factual material is this: that it is of the order of 6,000 FTEs—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! You have asked your question.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —who are separating from the Public Service entirely each year, and that is the relevant number on which to base a policy about reductions in the Public Service.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Will members on my left be quiet so that we can hear the Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: If the fact that the wrong number has been used is not bad enough, of course attrition is an uneven way of actually getting reductions in the public sector because it is spread unevenly across a range of particular occupations, which include police, doctors, nurses—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: And teachers.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —and teachers, and we cannot simply do without those. So what does that leave you with? It leaves you with a gap. What is the gap? The people who get sacked, and people understand this. This is why Campbell Newman's remarks ring incredibly brightly from over in Queensland. He said before the election that it would be attrition that would allow him to achieve these things. We now know that it is sackings that will achieve these things.

So, we now know, courtesy of the reportage today, that it was the putative leader, the member for Waite, who has proposed the fig leaf, which is the audit commission. When you hear the words 'audit commission' substitute 25,000 to 35,000 jobs. This is code—'audit commission' equals 25,000 to 35,000 jobs. This is the policy. The only clarification that five hours later the Leader of the Opposition sought to make is the real policy—

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: If this is relevance, I would ask the Premier to sit down.

Mr WILLIAMS: The Premier is debating.

The SPEAKER: Order!

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