Page 273 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 12 May 1992
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Mr Lamont: Let us abolish education while we are at it! Get them working 12-hour days - back down the coalmines!
MRS CARNELL: If Mr Lamont believes that any young person in the ACT would rather sit at home without a job than work for a decent amount of money - Saturdays, Sundays, at night - - -
Mr Lamont: But work in your pharmacy for $1 an hour?
MRS CARNELL: That is absolutely ridiculous! Then let us make our TAFE courses and other training courses relevant, to equip people for real jobs which exist when the course finishes.
MR DE DOMENICO (8.23): Madam Speaker, in terms of the people on the other side of the house, the truth sometimes really does hurt. The facts are - these are not my figures; they are the figures of the ABS for the labour force - that in March, last month, in Canberra there were 1,100 unemployed young people. That is a fact; it is not fiction. There were 200 more in March.
Mr Lamont: Which is fact and which is fiction?
MR DE DOMENICO: Listen to this; you might learn something. The average cost of one young person on the dole is $181.10 per fortnight. Take note, because this is fair dinkum, mate. But the cost is greater in terms of self-esteem. Let us not forget about the individuals concerned. Let us not just look at statistics. What is the cost in terms of self-esteem? Let us get some sanity into the debate. It is all about getting ahead, encouragement and incentive, as well. The cost of being idle, in other words, is incalculable in social and economic terms. But let us talk about some economic terms as well. Having 200 extra young people unemployed in the ACT costs the taxpayer $36,220 per fortnight. Per year, it works out to be nearly a million dollars. That is just the additional economic cost of youth unemployment in the ACT in one month compared with another.
Let us get real about whether we want to do something about youth unemployment. Let us see what the Chief Minister said before. She said that the level was unacceptable. We all agree with that, and we all agree with motherhood. She said that EPACT and MYAC were doing something, and Ms Ellis tells me that VADA is doing something.
Mr Kaine: Is Rosemary doing anything?
MR DE DOMENICO: All these groups are doing something, but Rosemary and the Labor Government are doing a no-act - that is, no action whatsoever. There is a lot of talk about the fact that we are concerned about youth unemployment, but there is no action. Someone might say to me, "Okay, what are you going to do about it?". Mrs Carnell, quite clearly and quite eloquently, if I might say so, talked about what the Liberal Party has been saying for a long time.
Mr Lamont: And what the H.R. Nicholls Society has been telling you to say.
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