Page 7 - Week 01 - Friday, 27 March 1992
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LEADER OF THE OPPOSITION
THE PRESIDING OFFICER: Under standing order 5A, the Leader of the Opposition shall be the leader of the largest non-government party, with the consent of that member. As Mr Kaine, as leader of the Liberal Party, is the leader of the largest non-government party, I now seek his consent to being Leader of the Opposition.
MR KAINE: Madam Speaker, I accept the responsibilities of the Leader of the Opposition. If it is the will of the Assembly that I accept that office, then I would seek leave to make a statement.
Leave granted.
MR KAINE: Thank you, members. I should, first of all, like to congratulate you, Madam Speaker, on your election to the position of Speaker of this Assembly. The Liberals, in opposition, took the view that it was the responsibility of the Government to provide the Speaker. We accept your election to that office and we accept that you will exercise that office in an unbiased fashion.
I would also like to congratulate Rosemary Follett on her election as Chief Minister. The Liberals would have preferred it otherwise, but the electorate has expressed its view and the Assembly has now done so.
However, having noted and acknowledged the election of Rosemary Follett as leader of the Government and Chief Minister, there are some things that flow from that. We in the Opposition believe that there are some points that need to be made in connection with the life of this Assembly for the next three years. The magnitude and nature of the job ahead of this Assembly, and of the Government in particular, means that it is not an easy one. There are major issues that need to be addressed. Some of them have been in existence during the entire life of this Assembly and have not yet been resolved. They need to be resolved now and they need to be resolved quickly. I refer to just a few.
First, there is the state of the employment market in the ACT. Unemployment is approaching 9 per cent, and our youth figure very largely in those unemployed. The Government has to do something, and it has to do something quickly, to address that problem. It is unacceptable in the national capital that we should have an unemployment rate of that magnitude.
Accompanying the question of unemployment, of course, is the question of getting the private sector started in this Territory. The private sector is going to be the engine of growth. It is there that the job creation will occur. It is up to this Government now to address the problem of getting the private sector economy moving again in this Territory so that they create some jobs and remove that unacceptable level of unemployment that plagues our society. So, I give notice to the Government that we in the Opposition expect them to address these issues.
Another one, of course, is the health problem, the hospital beds problem that plagues us. There has been a non-productive and often spurious debate going on about hospital beds. The debate has to stop. The Government has to do something about fixing the problem. That debate should now be set aside. The Government has to address the question of fixing the hospital beds problem. It cannot be allowed to go on any longer.
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