Ms BURNET (Clark) – Well, roll up, roll up. We have the great Tasmanian fire sale courtesy of the Rockliff razor gang, the sale of assets and public institutions, a huge scare campaign scaring the pants off 37,000 public servants across Tasmania. From Smithton to Geeveston, from Launceston to Hobart and everywhere in between people are scared about what this government will be doing to cut the bejesus out of public service institutions. It is just not good enough. It is not visionary as the Premier has suggested his speech yesterday was. It is an insult to those institutions and those public servants who should be looking at a government that is looking out for them. That is not what we are seeing.
I stood this morning with members of unions, public servants who were not so much worried about their own jobs, but they were concerned about those institutions they have worked so hard in over many years, institutions right across the public service. It is a huge concern to think that this is going to undermine rather than build up what we have.
Interesting captain’s pick by the Premier in tapping Saul Eslake on the shoulder. Saul Eslake, from what I remember – Mr Bayley, can you remind me? Was Saul Eslake just disregarded? His advice disregarded, recently, by the Premier?
Mr Bayley – 100 per cent.
Ms BURNET – Not only Saul Eslake, but that is a common pattern by the Premier, unfortunately. This government has had the Gruen Report which was released on 1 January, which was disregarded. The advice from Martyn Goddard, who is a health analyst, was summarily disregarded. So, too, was the work of John Lawrence and Graham Wells. Again and again, this government seems to cherry‑pick advice. From this morning’s interview with Saul Eslake on the radio, he does not have any terms of reference as yet and there is no timeline. Good way to start to look at any sort of review.
In 2021, Ian Watt AO was asked to review the Tasmanian State Service . He reviewed that and the recommendations were taken on board by the government. They are moving through that. It is a bit like just reinforcing that red tape. Here we have a review of the State Service to make it more efficient, and yet what are we seeing? We are seeing the government think about introducing some other major review. This is not good enough. It undermines the public service. It is not visionary. We need strong institutions. This is a sure‑fire way to undermine those institutions.
Setting up the EPU, which was announced this morning by the Deputy Premier, minister Barnett – the EPU is the Efficiency and Productivity Unit. It is there, it is another captain’s call, by the Premier and Treasurer. It is a real sort of executive government, so you will not get a say in this at all if you are not the Premier nor Treasurer. The members will be appointed shortly.
This is a retrograde step by this government. It is an irresponsible step by this government and it is very poor fiscal management. We do not have a state of the state address which has been visionary. We have public servants who will be shaking in their boots.
Time expired.
