Page 2622 - Week 12 - Thursday, 16 November 1989
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MR BERRY: It would only be in passing. But 172,000 people will be affected by the unemployment benefit approach by the Liberal Party - an attack on people who cannot defend themselves. That is not uncommon. The proposals will hit hardest at some of the most disadvantaged in our community: single parents; long-term unemployed people; disabled and ill people; people looking for work, especially older women seeking to re-enter the work force; people from non-English speaking backgrounds; and Aborigines. That is where the hardest hit people will come from.
Mr Kaine: You've been listening too much to your Federal mates because that is what they say. They didn't read it either.
MR BERRY: You do not like the truth on this matter because it is very clear that a Federal Liberal government would double the waiting period for unemployment benefits from one week to two weeks; people on sickness benefits would be subjected to a monthly check by Commonwealth medical officers, and some invalid pensioners would have a yearly check; and migrants would not be able to claim. I go back to the comments of Mrs Grassby. There is a clear attack on poor immigrants. It is a very clear attack, and there can be no denial of that.
Mr Speaker, the impact of these policies on the ACT is the most important focus of this debate which should have been addressed by the conservatives opposite. The extension of waiting periods for payment of unemployment benefit and the ending of unemployment benefit after nine months, with the changeover, if eligible, to special benefit, and cuts in labour and employment programs will have an impact on recipients of benefits and their dependants in the ACT. The mere fact that they were not mentioned by any of these people opposite demonstrates a clear lack of concern for those people in the ACT.
Mr Kaine: A good try, Wayne, but it is not true.
MR BERRY: It is true. You did not mention it. There is a clear impact, but no mention.
Mr Collaery: Who are you talking to?
MR BERRY: You will just have to listen to me, Bernard. There will be an increase in the need for supplementary financial assistance from this Government to which some of you aspire.
Mr Collaery: Your director of welfare would not pay the fees the other day for a child to go to Marymead.
MR SPEAKER: Order!
MR BERRY: Tell all the story, Bernard.
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