THE media was awash with the 1200 jobs going from Ford over the next three years. The impact on Geelong was to be devastating until the Victorian and Federal governments jumped into action. 

Prime Minister Julia Gillard announced $50 million of taxpayers’ money for retraining and to assist Geelong to reinvent itself. Another $34 million continues to pour into Ford as part of the Government support for the final three years of manufacture. The Ford Falcon has been an Australian icon and it is good politics to be seen to provide support for the workers.

Meanwhile, in Canberra 2500 jobs were cut from the public service last year without a whimper. As a direct result of these public service cuts unemployment in the ACT has got worse, going against the national trend. There was no support package for Canberra!

If what is good enough for the goose is good enough for the gander the city of Canberra would have a $100 million package – having already had double the number of jobs slashed than those in Geelong. Add to this that Ford jobs will be lost over three years whereas double the numbers were lost in Canberra in the last six months of last year.

This is just chickenfeed! If the Abbott Government is elected on September 14 there are to be much deeper and much more devastating cuts.

The figures vary across the Coalition with the shadow treasurer, Joe Hockey, bandying about figures of up to 20,000, although, in his Budget-in-Reply speech, Tony Abbott seems to have firmed the figures to 12,000 public servants and clarified that not all will come from Canberra. But the impact on Canberra will be devastating.

Tony Abbott saw the loss of the 1200 jobs in Ford as “a black day for Australian manufacturing” and added that “this will be particularly devastating for the city of Geelong”.

He told the Liberal Party State Conference in Melbourne last Saturday: “Personally, I felt like I’d been kicked in the guts.” He continued by telling the people of Geelong that tough times will pass. And then, to loud applause, he reinforced for the party faithful that he would slash public service numbers.

ACT Treasurer, Andrew Barr, who is also Minister for Economic Development must be pulling out his hair attempting to work out how to stimulate the ACT economy to deal with the possibility of such cuts at the same time he is attempting to bring the ACT Budget into surplus.

And what a gift for ACT Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Hanson! As soon as his Federal Liberal colleagues rip into Canberra’s job market Jeremy will be able to point the figure at the economic incompetence of Andrew Barr as Treasurer and the Labor Party as a whole.

One of the most melancholy reflections on the contrast between what is happening in Geelong with the job losses in Canberra is the way the Australian community perceives the value of different jobs. Manufacturing jobs in Ford and other Australian car manufacturers have had ongoing support for years. Elected representatives recognise and largely reflect community sentiment. The professional public service in Canberra, with its high levels of education, hard work and professional commitment is rarely seen in its full value by politicians from outside of Canberra.

Canberra bashing has long been a political sport that appeals to the electorate at home. If only these hard workers were appropriately valued by the community outside Canberra there would not be this constant drive to slash the public service.

Labor Senator Kate Lundy put the issue into perspective in a press release when she stated: “Between 1996 and 1999, a previous Coalition Government under John Howard, cut about 30,000 jobs from the Australian Public Service, sending the ACT and the region into an economic downturn, and gutting the value of family homes by around 30 per cent.”

Most Canberrans are not looking for a Geelong style handout from the Federal Government – but appropriate respect about the contribution made in Canberra for all Australians would be a good start.

Michael Moore was an independent member of the ACT Legislative Assembly (1989 to 2001) and was minister for health.