Page 264 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 12 May 1992
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With these two defined areas of policy, we also included in our reform agenda our commitment to refer the issue of youth unemployment to a select committee. As the major community issue of the moment, I feel that unemployment deserves the highest consideration and a timetable which produces real, achievable goals and an action plan that will see tangible improvements in the shortest possible time. I would here foreshadow that at the conclusion of this debate I will seek leave of the ACT Legislative Assembly to establish a select committee on youth unemployment.
I feel that a select committee would be the obvious vehicle for discussion of such an important issue, as it could devote all its energies to the matter at hand and include in its terms of reference the identification of short-, medium- and long-term strategies. I would here claim as a reference the Labor Government's own Economic Priorities Advisory Committee headed by Professor Fred Gruen. Earlier this year, after the committee's first hearing, he called on the Government to make youth unemployment one of the Government's priority targets. I feel that my suggestion of a select committee would meet the call admirably.
Let us not forget as well the interrelationship between youth unemployment, social dysfunction, crime and substance abuse. The ability to earn a living is an essential pillar of Australian society. Those who are kept on the outside of this major section of the community can often feel more than isolation, namely, anger and frustration. I feel that there is more to be gained from making youth unemployment the highest priority on the Government's agenda than just placing them in jobs.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (5.11): I would like to thank Ms Szuty for putting this on the agenda for the Assembly. This matter is very close to my heart. In fact, it is an issue to which I have given top priority, and rightly so, because I think all members here would agree that unemployment, particularly for our young people, is a scourge in our community, and it is something that should be addressed vigorously.
I would like to outline briefly what action the Government has taken in relation to unemployment, and youth unemployment in particular. Recently, when I opened the south side office of Jobline, I said that the ACT is currently experiencing very high levels of unemployment, although, as members know, our unemployment levels continue to be somewhat lower than those elsewhere in Australia. That is not a cause for any sort of complacency. It is certainly not a matter upon which I congratulate my Government. It is a matter that continues to be of grave concern. The most notable feature of our unemployment statistics is the fact that young unemployed people continue to face severe disadvantage, and the unemployment rate for young people is at an atrociously unacceptable level. As has been pointed out, I think, by Ms Szuty, amongst young people, particularly in the 15 to 19 years age range, one in five is unemployed, and that is an unacceptable level.
Members of the Assembly would be aware that when I established my Economic Priorities Advisory Committee I identified youth unemployment as a priority for that committee - not the other way round, as I think Ms Szuty said. I asked them to address this issue as their No. 1 task, and indeed they have. EPACT will be presenting their report to me very shortly, and I know that they have made a careful study of this issue. Once I have that report, it is my intention to release it for community discussion and to address the recommendations that EPACT makes, as a matter of priority.
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