The Canberra Liberals will seek to drive a wedge between local Labor politicians and their federal colleagues over a federal election pledge to cut public service contractors.
ACT Deputy Opposition Leader Jeremy Hanson will label the announcement from federal Labor a move to cut thousands of high-skilled jobs from Canberra.
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"All members within the ACT Legislative Assembly should be extremely concerned about this policy announced by the Australian Labor Party and must call on the federal opposition to drop this dangerous plan," Mr Hanson said in a statement.
Mr Hanson said Chief Minister Andrew Barr and the Greens needed to put Canberrans above politics and join the Canberra Liberals' call to keep the jobs in Canberra.
"The Canberra Liberals will always stand up Canberra jobs and denounce any policy that threatens to take those jobs away," she said.
Federal Labor committed to restoring more than a thousand outsourced service delivery jobs if it formed government after the May 21 election.
The party last week claimed a purge of contractors and consultants used to perform the work that would otherwise be done by public servants could reap as much as $3 billion in budget savings over four years.
Labor committed to restoring 1080 service delivery jobs at Services Australia, the Department of Veterans' Affairs and the National Disability Insurance Agency.
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The APS consultancy bill averages around $2 million every day, having doubled since the Coalition came to power.
Some consultants were charging more than $5800 per day, the public sector union CPSU said, and doing work that APS staff would do for a tenth of the price.
The Canberra Liberals' motion will call on the Legislative Assembly to condemn ACT senator Katy Gallagher for proposing a "$3 billion hit to Canberra jobs and [the] Canberra economy".
If passed, the motion, to be debated on Tuesday, would require the Assembly to write to Anthony Albanese defending private- and public-sector jobs in the ACT, and call on the federal opposition to drop the policy of "massive job cuts in Canberra".
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Jasper Lindell
Jasper Lindell joined the Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine on Saturdays. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
Jasper Lindell joined the Times in 2018. He is a Legislative Assembly reporter, covering ACT politics and government. He also writes about development, heritage, local history, literature and the arts, as well as contributing to the Times' Panorama magazine on Saturdays. He was previously a Sunday Canberra Times reporter.
