PATRICK GORMAN, ASSISTANT MINISTER TO THE PRIME MINISTER: I'm Patrick Gorman, Assistant Minister to the Prime Minister, Assistant Minister for the Public Service. It is great to be here in Launceston with Jess Teesdale, our excellent candidate for Bass. Jess has got a fantastic story as a teacher, someone who's actually trying to really hand down skills and opportunity to the next generation. And that's what she now wants to do as part of the Albanese Labor team. Handing down skills and opportunity to the next generation.
Great to be with her this morning, and it's wonderful of her to invite us along to have a chat to all of you about some of the things that are going to be really important in the election, that's just a few weeks away. People here in Launceston and across Tasmania are going to have a big decision in front of them. And it is a decision, about whether we build Tasmania's future, or whether we take Tasmania backwards. That is the question in front of every voter at this election. And what I've seen today - I was over the road visiting some of the really hard working public servants at Services Australia and the National Disability Insurance Agency - hearing about the work that they do, making sure that Tasmanians here in Launceston and across the state can get the services that they need.
Here locally, we’ve got some 8,000 pensioners relying on government payments. We've got some 900 veterans relying on government support. We’ve got 5000 people who rely upon healthcare cards and other services, and we know that the people who deliver those services are at risk under a Dutton Liberal Government. That risk is serious. Mr. Dutton has said that he wants to cut 20 per cent of the public service. Now, those cuts aren't just going to be in Canberra. They're going to be across the country, and it's going to be regional communities like here in Launceston that feel it the worst. Here locally, we would see some 70 people lose their jobs, and I don't need to tell you how much that will be felt as a ripple across the community. Because you’re not just ripping away people's livelihoods, you're also ripping away the people who deliver those essential services.
We've been here in Tasmania this week, the Prime Minister, Minister Butler and others, talking about investing in Medicare. Now we want to invest in Medicare to make sure that people can see a GP when they need to, so that nine out of ten GP appointments are bulk billed. But we're also making sure that the back end of those systems, the Medicare system that's been supporting Australia for some 41 years, we're making sure the back end of those systems have the public servants to deliver those payments. And if Mr. Dutton rips away some 70 public servants here in Launceston, some 900 public servants across all of Tasmania, that's going to mean longer wait times for parental leave payments, longer wait times for the pension. We'll go back to the bad old days where we had some 41,000 Australian veterans waiting for some $6.5 billion of payments.
We can't take Tasmania backwards. We can't take Australia backwards. And we don't want to take our public services backwards, that so many people rely upon. We want to make sure that when people rock up across the road to Services Australia, where they can get the aged pension they've worked so hard to earn. We want to make sure they can get the support their family members relying upon the National Disability Insurance Scheme need. Or in those really exciting years where you’ve got a little bub, the first time going to apply for a paid parental leave payment. Under our Government, we've taken the wait time on that from some 31 days - down to three days. A 28 day reduction, a huge improvement. We can't let all of these gains go to waste with savage cuts, aggressive cuts, and a civil war on the public service.
I back our public service all across Australia. Jess Teesdale backs our public servants. And I might leave her to say a few words.
JESS TEESDALE, LABOR CANDIDATE FOR BASS: We've just heard from the Minister about what could potentially happen under Peter Dutton. Now in Launceston, if you had 70 jobs lost in the public service, that's actual people. So that is mothers, that is fathers. They are the people that you play soccer with, people you play basketball with. It is Launceston. You will know someone who will potentially lose their job if Peter Dutton gets in.
That is something that we can't afford here in Tasmania, and we cannot afford that in Bass. Labor will not cut public service jobs in this manner. Because we know that we need the efficiency in these services, because that is what matters most.
GORMAN: Thanks Jess. Any questions?
JOURNALIST: I guess you said, did you say you were you were over there speaking to people? I guess, what's their reaction to this possibility?
GORMAN: What I do is visits to the public service. I've got to be respectful of the fact that I can't go and do political discussions when I'm there. But what I did hear was the benefits of our Government's investments in the public service. That they are able to ensure that customers are getting the services they want. That we’ve reduced the contracting. What we had before was a lot of these bits of work were being done by contractors who were on very insecure employment arrangements. So some of those jobs, they've been able to bring from contracting arrangements into permanent public sector jobs. And that really helps people.
We all know that having a secure job, and we're a large employer, and proudly so in the Commonwealth, having a secure job makes a real difference. So getting rid of some of those contracting arrangements, and equally, getting rid of some of that shadow workforce, has also saved the Commonwealth Government some $4 billion since we came to office. Cuts and contracting out can often cost more than what we've done, which is invest in the public service. Making sure we’ve got a lot of highly qualified, highly skilled public servants delivering sometimes very complex support. I spoke to some of the National Disability Insurance Agency staff who were there helping people. I spoke to one gentleman who specifically helps families with children relying on the National Disability Insurance Scheme, get their kids into the scheme for the first time. That is life changing.
And again, it's great to see public servants so proud of their work. I'm proud of their work as an Australian. It makes me proud to see public servants supporting their fellow Australians, and that's why I just don't understand why Peter Dutton wants this civil war on Australia's public service.
JOURNALIST: Patrick, Peter Dutton’s claims have been a bit well, they've been a bit vague, sort of, he hasn't highlighted exactly how many or necessarily where they'll come from. How's Labor come to this number in Tasmania of 900, and 70 in Launceston?
GORMAN: So what we've heard at different times from the Coalition is they've said, repeatedly, used the number of 36,000 public service jobs. Now they've said that they're going to reduce the public service by 36,000 - that is 20 per cent. So if I go to 20 per cent of 350 public servants who work here in Launceston, that’s 70 people. And I've said this number of times, in a number of different formulations, and never been contested by the Liberal Party or the National Party.
And I note that David Littleproud, who is the Leader of the National Party, David Littleproud would be the Deputy Prime Minister. He would sit on the Expenditure Review Committee of Cabinet. He would be the chair of Cabinet and acting Prime Minister when Mr. Dutton would be overseas if he was Prime Minister. David Littleproud said not just that it was a priority to cut those 36,000 public servants, but it would be the first thing that he would do. The first thing. Before they get a briefing, before anything else happens, before they've even held a Cabinet meeting, they're swinging the axe on public servants here in Launceston. Now that tells me everything about just how out of touch, the Liberal Party and the National Party have become. That they want to make it so that people have to wait longer to get a pension. They will have to wait longer to get a paid parental leave payment. They will have to wait longer to get Medicare support.
That's how we've come to these figures. And I'm very happy to debate any member of the Liberal Party or the National Party about their cuts to the public service. There's going to be communities across Australia that feel the impact.
JOURNALIST: Thank you very much.
GORMAN: Thank you very much.
TEESDALE: Thank you.