Page 274 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 12 May 1992
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MR DE DOMENICO: We are going to get all this sort of talk from ex-trade union bosses who have never been in a business, but the simple answer is that you have to make it cheaper for employers to employ people. That is not reinventing the wheel. Why did this Government last year not accept an amendment to the workers compensation legislation to put in a termination clause, which would have further reduced the cost of workers compensation to employers?
Mr Connolly: When they are injured, just throw them out on the street!
MR DE DOMENICO: There is Basil having another go again. Blame the employer! Whack Manuel on the back of the head again, Basil! You always do it. Shoot the messenger! Why has the Government not reduced the impost of payroll tax by increasing the threshold to $1m? Once a Federal Liberal government comes in, rest assured that there will not be any payroll tax, Mr Connolly.
Have a look at some of the initiatives that Ms Follett was talking about. She keeps mentioning the importance of the private sector to the future of this Territory. We agree with her. The private sector is very important in the equation to create more jobs, but let us make sure that we create the atmosphere in which the private sector can flourish. We heard from Ms Follett in opening Business Week last year and, as president of the Chamber of Commerce at that stage, I was there. She said that she established a business services centre to support, EPACT to look at - these are her words - and a business licensing service for information, and that it made it easier to get into business. Not one job was created. Businesses were leaving Canberra and going broke in droves because of the impost on them.
She mentioned establishing industries. As early as November last year, the Liberal Party talked about the potential of high-tech and Optus. We are delighted that Ms Follett has taken that on.
Mr Lamont: But you did nothing.
MR DE DOMENICO: We were not in government, Mr Lamont; you were. You talked a lot. You were in government, and the truth hurts. She did nothing. She ran with our idea. It was fantastic of her to do that. Today she talked about the air freight terminal. We have been talking about it for the past year, for heaven's sake. You did nothing about it. You have been in government.
Mrs Grassby: But you didn't do anything.
MR DE DOMENICO: There is the voice from the faceless men in Belconnen. She is in the debate as well. She has done nothing either. Ms Follett said what a wonderful idea Gold Creek is. A feasibility study is being done in relation to Gold Creek. Not one job has been created, though. We support the feasibility study as well. We support Chinatown if it goes ahead, too. But not one job has been created.
Let us look at the national situation. We are now suffering from the recession that we had to have. It had nothing to do with the Liberal Party; it was caused by Mr Keating. That hurts. It was not a Liberal government that did it; it was a Labor government.
Ms Ellis: That is a bit of a change. They did it last time.
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