Canberrans need only look out their window for the reason Director-General Dave Peffer has made a major error in judgment in trying to cut 130 jobs out of the City and Environment Directorate.

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No matter where across Canberra you look, perhaps except for land controlled by the National Capital Authority, our city needs work. Grass is out of control. Our sporting fields aren't up to scratch.

Waste is being left to rot on the side of roads. Footpaths are cracked. None of this is the fault of the workers who are run off their feet trying to both allocate and get the work done, but there are simply not enough of them. We need more workers, not fewer.

These are the things Canberrans see every day. What you don't necessarily see, but benefit from, is the workers undertaking a range of important policy work on issues like the environment and of course there is all the work that goes into planning our city, our bush capital.

And we can't forget Access Canberra who seem to do everything. They sort out our licences, do our car registration, births, deaths and relationships and Fix My Street. Canberrans know we can call Access Canberra and be directed to the right area. But for how much longer?

Make no mistake, Dave Peffer wants to gut the directorate to fix his bottom line. We saw it Canberra Health Services and, like déjà vu, here we are again. At Canberra Health Services, Dave gave commitment after commitment that front-line jobs wouldn't be cut.

Then, after the CPSU was forced to use Work Health and........

© Canberra Times