Page 637 - Week 02 - Thursday, 21 February 1991
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councils. If those are not practical ways of helping youth to gain employment, I do not know what you would say were; but, of course, the Leader of the Opposition would not want to hear about that.
It should also be emphasised that the hard won efforts of this Government, in creating an environment to sustain the economic and social growth of Canberra in the future, would all be jeopardised by the Opposition's proposals such as reopening schools and hospitals and introducing a raft of other expensive programs. Where they would get the money from they do not know, and they did not know when they were in government. It would place an extra burden on the taxpayer and do nothing for the creation and encouragement of work. We all know that these commitments will be funded by imposing greater burdens on the business sector and the Canberra community if Labor ever gets back into office - thus ruining opportunities for further real job growth. And they have the effrontery to lecture us about what to do about creating jobs.
Mr Speaker, this Government is committed to programs which will sustain and generate real job growth, which reflect sound management of our resources and our economy, and which will, within the constraints imposed by Mr Keating and the Federal Labor Government, lead to a dynamic and equitable ACT which will be the envy of the other States.
This Alliance Government is already partly there. We will continue to do it, and I am quite confident, Mr Speaker, that this time next year this Alliance Government will still be sitting here and getting on with its economic development program. It would be an absolute disaster for this Territory if the Socialist Left, represented by the Opposition, ever got its hands on this economy again.
MR WOOD (4.41): Mr Speaker, we have just seen one of the problems behind youth unemployment in the ACT, and that is that we find it very difficult to sustain a debate based on data and based on good sense. The Chief Minister said a few minutes ago that unemployment amongst young people in Canberra has risen over the last eight to nine years, and he related that to the occupancy of the Hawke Government. That is simply incorrect; it is misleading the house.
Mr Kaine: I said "all unemployment", not "youth unemployment". You did not listen.
MR WOOD: Well, that again is simply incorrect. It cannot be supported and it is misleading the house. If the Chief Minister wants to sustain any credibility, he had better bring those figures to the house and tell us, or else he will be withdrawing and apologising as Mr Humphries did a couple of days ago.
He also said that recruitment into the Public Service has ceased, and that again is a clear misstatement; it has not ceased. It certainly is not the flow that it was before,
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