“Leaving it to senior public servants when the news is bad and fronting the media only when there is a great picture or positive news is gutless politics,” growls political columnist MICHAEL MOORE.

A media flick-pass to the head of the directorate? It must be bad news! What political cowardice!

No matter how it is spun, cutting close to 70 jobs from ACT Health is not good news.

Health and Community Services director-general Kareena Arthy fronted the media and struggled to present a brave face as she tried to explain how close to four per cent of staff would be cut.

It turns out that her department has around 45 more staff beyond what was budgeted.

But where’s Wally? In this case there are two Wallys. It could be Health Minister Dr Marisa Paterson or Minister for the Public Service and Deputy Chief Minister Rachel Stephen-Smith. Like Wally, they are both hard to find!

But there she is on Facebook, Minister Stephen-Smith spruiking the lovely new uniforms that health services personnel will be able to wear. She is so happy to be able to emphasise bringing support staff into full-time employment.

And Dr Paterson faced the media with the good news on GP sign-up to “co-ordinated and timely care in the ACT”. There was also a brilliant media opportunity with the bushfire brigade advocating the CHAT. PLAN. ACT program.

But what about facing the media on the issue of cuts being made to health staff? Better to hide – leave that to the head of the directorate as there might be awkward questions that need answering.

There are awkward questions! Why are you cutting frontline staff and protecting the oversupply of SES officers in the directorate? Will child protection, youth and domestic violence staff be exempted from the cuts? Why are 65 redundancies available when you are overstaffed by 45 employees?

Where is Stephen-Smith when there are questions around her responsibilities as Minister for Child Development and Wellbeing? Oh! That’s right – the nice uniforms. 

Not to mention her media around “supporting children and families to thrive”. A very early distracting announcement of a project jointly funded by the federal government. 

Ms Arthy did attempt to answer some of the awkward questions.

“One of our core criteria for the assessment is looking at the impact on service delivery capability and we will be taking that into account when we are making a final decision,” she said.

“Our goal is to ensure that we operate and provide our services to Canberrans within the budget that we have got available.”

A sensible answer. But where was the Minister?

It is not just in the Health and Community Services Directorate that questions need to be answered. Granted, nurses and doctors that are employed by Canberra Health Services are not being cut. Well not at this stage! 

In her capacity as Minister for the Public Services, Ms Stephen-Smith has also targeted a range of other departments.

It was recently revealed that in her own portfolio of education, support staff in schools were being cut, classes combined and there would be increases in class sizes. All to meet tighter budgets.

There can be no doubt that the budget must be brought under control. The number of staff in the public service is a key item of expenditure and cannot be ignored.

However, this raises serious questions that should be fronted by ministers. How did the government manage over the last quarter century to be so over staffed that it is now time to look for redundancies?

Managing the budget is tough. But what is needed is the spine to get out and answer the hard questions. 

Canberrans are not stupid. They can see right through the process. Leaving it to senior public servants when the news is bad and fronting the media only when there is a great picture or positive news is gutless politics.

Leader of the Opposition, Mr Mark Parton, pointed out “voluntary redundancy does not make a staffing cut any less real. Canberrans will feel it in longer waits and thinner services”. 

It is an important point and one to which the minister with responsibility ought to be answering.

Political cowardice has been demonstrated in flick passing the tough media to a senior public servant.

Considering the task, Ms Arthy did perform as well as could be expected under the circumstances. She should not be in the firing line… it ought to be the two Wallys – but they could only be found on another page.

Michael Moore is a former member of the ACT Legislative Assembly and an independent minister for health. He has been a political columnist with CityNews since 2006.

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