Page 243 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 12 May 1992
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MR CORNWELL (3.59): I rise to support my colleagues and certainly to support the amendment moved by Mr Kaine. Let me begin by repeating what my colleague Mr Humphries said, namely, that there have been no benefits whatsoever out of this Premiers Conference - or was it perhaps the Premiers Conference that was not one? I was a little confused.
Mr Kaine: It is now the Council of Australian Governments. We changed the title.
MR CORNWELL: They are good at changing titles in this Labor Party, I notice. I will come back to that later. I was fascinated to hear as a defence, earlier in question time, the Chief Minister stating that the ACT's economy is in a better condition than Victoria's. Well, you know about damning with faint praise. It crossed my mind that that is like saying that the passengers on the Lusitania, torpedoed by a German submarine in 1915, were doing better than those on the Titanic. I do not see any difference.
Mr De Domenico: They had no deckchairs to shift on the Lusitania.
Mrs Grassby: Yes, the water was a lot warmer for the Lusitania than it was for the Titanic.
MR CORNWELL: I will let that matter rest; I do not see that I should continue on that. I have looked through this communique that has been made about what has come out of this Premiers Conference, and I can see very little of anything positive. My particular interest is in the area of education. What do I see of vocational education and training in the communique? What we see here is that the heads of government have agreed on the necessity of achieving a major increase in the level of vocational education and training opportunities across Australia. I would have thought that was self-evident.
In line with this objective the heads of government resolved that they are going to look at the matter further at the June meeting. The communique said:
... the issue of youth employment and training is one of national priority and will be further progressed at the June meeting.
They talk earlier in the communique about the Finn committee and they talk about the Carmichael report. For heaven's sake, these matters have been around since October last year. They were talking about the importance of education and training at that time. Ms Szuty has a matter of public importance in relation to youth unemployment listed on the notice paper for debate a little later. I would have thought that we could have something a little more positive coming out of yesterday's perhaps Premiers Conference on this matter, considering that it has been around for a long, long time.
Mr De Domenico: But it is not urgent enough. In June it will be urgent, Greg.
MR CORNWELL: No, it is not urgent enough so far as this Government is concerned. The fact that we have 4,000 people looking for TAFE places - - -
Mr De Domenico: How many?
MR CORNWELL: There were 4,000 looking for TAFE places at the beginning of this year. That the Finn report came down in October last year and we now, in May, are still not addressing these questions is a national disgrace.
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