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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-06-04 Daily Xml
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National Commission of Audit

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (15:34): I have been interested in following some of the issues arising from the National Commission of Audit report, and following from that the federal budget. I know there has been a lot of discussion in this place about the effect of the federal budget but I was really shocked to hear that the Asbestos Safety and Eradication Agency is going to be scrapped. This organisation was set up last year, I understand, by the Labor government with the support of the Coalition to deliver on the national strategic plan on asbestos.

Although I would not always quote The Sydney Morning Herald, they say that Australia has the highest per capita rate of asbestos disease in the world, so that was a fairly dreadful statistic that they have raised. They also say that from their research 40,000 people are expected to die in the third wave of asbestos related diseases. We are not talking about something that just affects a few people in the building industry, for example. We are talking about a major crisis, in my view. The axing of this agency was identified by the National Commission of Audit as a cost-saving measure and then sadly taken up in the federal budget.

Because of my respect for the work that our many unions do in South Australia, I asked the Commonwealth Public Sector Union to tell me about what the effects of the budget were on their members in South Australia. What they have told me is that, over the past year (2013-14), 2,695 jobs have been cut, with a further 7,336 jobs to go in the 2014-15 year, equalling a 4.1 per cent cut. This includes 2,329 workers from the ATO, 535 from DFAT and 489 from the CSIRO. They say the government will cut 16,500 jobs from the Australian Public Service over the next three years.

This is added to the government's doubling of the efficiency dividend imposed on agencies from 1.25 per cent to 2.5 per cent. The Australian Research Council has also received a one-off 3.25 per cent efficiency dividend to be administered in the funding for 2015-16. The ABC will lose $120 million, while $8 million has been cut from SBS. The CSIRO will lose $114.7 million and the Australian Nuclear Science and Technology Organisation (ANSTO) will lose $27.6 million. The Australian Institute of Marine Science will lose $7.8 million.

As we have heard in this place, in addition to the already announced privatisation of Medibank Private, the budget announced scoping studies for putting Australian Hearing, Defence Housing Limited, the Royal Australian Mint and the registry function of Australian Securities and Investments on the privatisation list. I think there is some real concern there, not only for jobs but for the quality of the services that we have grown to appreciate and take for granted and what it will mean for South Australians on top of all the other issues that have been raised by my colleagues in this place.

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