Page 633 - Week 02 - Thursday, 21 February 1991
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MR KAINE: Thank you, Mr Temporary Deputy Speaker. The fact about the economic reality of the ACT is that about 50 per cent of the employment base is provided by the Australian Public Service, which has virtually closed down on recruiting, and that is the principal reason why high youth unemployment rates exist in Canberra. I do not control the Australian Public Service, and I cannot influence its recruiting policies. I suggest that you go over the lake and deliver the diatribe that you have just delivered to your mates over the lake. Tell them what they should be doing about fixing the unemployment rate and the economy nationally, and then you might be getting somewhere. Not only has unemployment been on the rise over the last eight or nine years under Federal Labor, but it has been a conscious policy of that Government - - -
Discussion interrupted.
ADJOURNMENT
MR TEMPORARY DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, Mr Kaine! It being 4.30, I propose the question:
That the Assembly do now adjourn.
Mr Collaery: I require the question to be put forthwith without debate.
Question resolved in the negative.
YOUTH UNEMPLOYMENT
Discussion of Matter of Public Importance
Discussion resumed.
MR KAINE: Not only has unemployment been rising during that period, but it has been a conscious policy of the Federal Labor Government to inflict high unemployment levels on the people of Australia. That has been made clear by Mr Keating, who has unashamedly described the existing circumstances as "the recession that had to happen" or "the recession that we had to have". And then Ms Follett has the nerve to talk to me about high youth unemployment. She can hardly claim that the Government of the ACT is responsible for the national economic conditions that face business today. These are the results of that eight years of unspectacular performance by the Federal Labor Government. As I said, she should direct her criticism where it belongs.
State governments, of course, have a somewhat constrained role in economic management, and it is enlightening to look at the performance of Labor States in the area that Ms Follett has chosen to emphasise. In January 1990, the
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