Page 2644 - Week 12 - Thursday, 16 November 1989
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bit to help us out. The recent report handed down by the Australian Bureau of Statistics has in fact highlighted the slowdown in population growth in Canberra over the last 12 months. As pointed out by the bureau, the slowdown has been attributed largely to the decline in public service recruitment. You will be aware that, in that last financial year, there was not one new job created in the public service in the ACT. So there has been a decline in public service recruitment, and in the private sector a downturn in the construction industry following completion of the new Parliament House.
The forecasts of Canberra's growth over the next five years which have been prepared by my department have taken these factors into account and have concluded that the prospects for private sector growth are such that employment growth in excess of 2 per cent per annum is achievable. On this basis, we would expect Canberra's population to increase from 278,300, which was the figure in June 1989, to a bit under 350,000 at June 2001, an annual average growth of 5,700, putting it at about 1.9 per cent per annum. Should the forecast growth in private sector employment not be achieved, unemployment would certainly increase and there would be a reduction in the net migration to the ACT. Population growth, however, is still expected to remain higher than for most of the other States and territories.
Hospitals
MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, my question is directed to the Minister for Community Services and Health. I note the Minister's suggestion yesterday that the ACT Government's plan to restructure the public hospital system was not entirely dependent on Commonwealth funds. I also note the Chief Minister's reply to a question earlier today that there was no commitment made by the Commonwealth yesterday, or Tuesday, with respect to Commonwealth funding and such. To what extent is the restructuring program dependent on Commonwealth funds? In other words, what is the lowest level of Commonwealth funding required to ensure the restructuring proposal is still viable?
MR BERRY: I think I made it clear yesterday in the house, but I will repeat the Government's position. The restructuring of the hospitals is a big-ticket item and it will be a major budget issue for the Government over a period of five to seven years. There is a planning process which is to be developed and it will take about a year to plan the project. The amount of funds applied each year will be done on a budget by budget basis. It is early days for a specific answer to be available to the question that Mr Humphries has asked in respect of formulas on funding. I think that the amount of budget allocation to the project cannot really be planned until the planning process, which will precede the development project, has been developed itself.
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