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Canberra Today 13°/18° | Friday, March 29, 2024 | Digital Edition | Crossword & Sudoku

Macklin / Public servants in line for a tax-cut whacking

 

Republican PushONCE again, Canberra’s beleaguered public servants are under hostile fire from the Abbott Government.

Employment Minister, Tasmanian Senator Eric Abetz, signalled that they were preparing to “save” $25 million on the service to compensate for the tax cuts foreshadowed by Treasurer Joe Hockey.

And while the Tasmanian Tiger “ruled out” another crackdown on hiring staff, two days later the Public Service Commissioner, John Lloyd, announced plans to make it easier for bosses in the bureaucracy to sack “underperformers”.

Just what represents an underperformer he didn’t say, but you have to wonder where it will end. If the Libs win the next ACT election, will it be repeated in the local public service? Time, perhaps, for leader Jeremy Hanson to make his position plain.

THOSE tax cuts, Hockey explained, were to right the injustice of “bracket creep”, which he assured us was really hurting the middle-income earners. Trouble is, the economists tell us that bracket creep is “the lowest since the official wage price index began in 1997”.

MAYBE Joe was diverted by his commitment to a much higher cause: the Republic. The announcement that he is joining our own Senator Katy Gallagher as parliamentary sponsor of this most worthy aim delighted republicans everywhere.

And despite the naysayers, there’s a real upsurge of grassroots support in the making. Indeed, when your columnist gave a speech on it to a packed house at the Melbourne Writers Festival there was a rousing positive response, even among the grey beards.

CONSTITUTIONAL recognition of our Aboriginal compatriots also plays into the republic issue since it provides an opportunity to draw a line under the British colonial policies that devastated the original Australians.

Aboriginal leader Les Malezer worried that the separate indigenous conferences, newly approved by Tony Abbott, “may wind back the process” by developing a “them-and-us” approach.

In fact, we’re told that some senior Aboriginal women want the issue revisited.

SPEAKING of Tony, it was fascinating to watch him keeping a straight face all week when asserting that it was President Obama who pleaded with him to bomb ISIS in Syria not the other way around. No one in the defence establishment believes it. Yet if Tony has his way we will soon be supporting the egregious President Assad, whose planes have bombed to death more than 7500 of his own people.

IF so, will Opposition Leader Bill Shorten take a stand? The “Four Corners” program on his rise up the Trade Union ladder to parliamentary leadership suggested he wouldn’t recognise a moral principle if it leapt up and bit him. Sadly, it almost feels like he and Tony deserve each other.

THREE cheers to the Melburnians for the way they rebelled against the Border Force plan to randomly intercept citizens in the CBD for visa checks. What was Immigration Minister Peter Dutton thinking? Well, he is a former Queensland copper…

ON a much happier note, at the Melbourne Writers FestivalWF we found an Australian novel to delight readers of both sexes and most ages: Big Little Lies by Liane Moriarty. It has a serious undercurrent but triggers more belly laughs than Catch 22! You’ll love it.

robert@robertmacklin.com

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Robert Macklin

Robert Macklin

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