Page 275 - Week 02 - Tuesday, 12 May 1992
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MR DE DOMENICO: You have had 10 years to do something about it. It is all well and good saying that inflation is running at zero. Close to one million people would be unemployed. Some of them would be very, very highly educated, but still they cannot get jobs. It is about time this Government stopped rhetorising, stopped talking and started to do something about it, so that the youth unemployment in the ACT, of 1,100, does not blow out again, as it will under a Labor administration. The truth hurts. What we need in this Territory and this country is a return to Liberal administration. Action speaks louder than words.
MR MOORE (8.29): It has been very interesting to listen to parts of this debate. It is ironic for Mr Berry to move that Ms Szuty's motion be referred to the Standing Committee on Social Policy for - - -
Mr Berry: Why don't you speak on it later when it comes up?
MR MOORE: The two are related. With a bit of luck, you will have to hear me only once. Mr Berry intends to move that Ms Szuty's motion be referred to the Social Policy Committee so that the committee can assess the necessity for a select committee and further inquiry. That is a standard sort of Wayne Berry tactic of delay - that we are not really going to consider the issue; we will ask a committee to consider whether another committee should consider the issue and perhaps take it up.
Mr De Domenico: On a point of order, Madam Speaker: Mr Moore, I dare say, will have an opportunity at a later stage to talk to the amendment that is to be moved by Mr Berry. Can I suggest that you instruct Mr Moore to talk about the MPI.
MR MOORE: I am quite happy to do that, Madam Speaker. I am quite happy to speak twice, if that is what the Assembly wants.
Mr Cornwell: Not necessarily.
MR MOORE: That is what is being asked for. So, rather than talk about how Mr Berry intends to put that off in his proposal, it is better to talk about how the Labor Government has done basically nothing on this issue. In this quarter I support the Liberals, in that we have seen a whole series of ideas which are starting to have some impact and which might have some impact in the next little while.
I think it is important to try to assess what can and cannot happen. We had a great deal of confusion coming from the Liberal Party as to the role of education in employment. Certainly, Mr Cornwell thinks, as does Ms Follett, that education is a very important and critical part of youth unemployment. That is true in one sense, that it assesses who gets employed and who does not. But the truth is that there is a limited pool of jobs but a much bigger pool of people looking for those jobs; somebody is going to miss out. Education sorts out who is and who is not going to miss out.
Mr Humphries: Up to a point.
MR MOORE: Mr Humphries interjects, "Up to a point", and that is true. I have oversimplified it in the same way as Mr Cornwell did. So, there is room for both to apply; but there is still a great deal of truth in what I say. No matter what we
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