Page 1013 - Week 04 - Thursday, 18 June 1992
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Youth unemployment is running at an average of 35 per cent in Australian States, and here I have omitted on purpose the figures for the ACT and the Northern Territory because of the high level of standard error. With so many young people looking for work and being unable to find it, we cannot afford to be complacent. The ACT's youth unemployment rate for May dropped significantly on paper. However, the Australian Bureau of Statistics views the difference between April's figure and that for May as being only just statistically significant. I would put it to the Assembly that there is no way that 700 young people in the ACT found jobs between the two months and, given that anyone who has worked one hour for wages is classed as employed by the Bureau of Statistics in their survey, I expect that the real unemployment problem is much greater than identified.
This brings me to the issue of the Chief Minister's Economic Priorities Advisory Committee report on the ACT youth labour market. I believe that Ms Follett will be making a ministerial statement on this report this afternoon during Assembly proceedings. In her press release the Chief Minister stated that she had indicated that this report would be referred to the Social Policy Committee once it had been released. However, from my reading of Hansard, no such commitment has been made. The stated intention was that once the Chief Minister had the report she would release it for community discussion and address the recommendations that EPACT have made as a matter of priority.
If there had been a commitment to refer the matter to the Social Policy Committee for its response at an earlier date, perhaps this would have placed a different complexion on the reference to the Social Policy Committee. But, lest I leave a wrong impression, I am delighted that the report has been produced so promptly and that it provides such a credible definition of the problem facing young people who are looking for work.
Within the report's recommendations there are many issues to be addressed and, as the committee moves on to the all-important review of budget matters, it would appear that a vehicle should be found to bring about implementation of those recommendations. It is therefore pleasing that the Social Policy Committee will have a chance to bring its expertise to the consideration of this report. In this regard I also welcome the comments of the committee chair, Ms Ellis, in this week's Valley View newspaper, where she is quoted as saying that she endorses fully the need for job creation, and the recognition given in that article to the fact that this is an issue for both government and the community. It is for this very reason that I sought to have the matter referred to a committee of this Assembly.
It is time to move on. The recommendations are on the table and it now has to be decided what is feasible in terms of implementation and what is not, and this includes what is acceptable to our community. There is a lot of debate already about deregulating shopping hours as one way of creating more jobs for young people. While this is an area to be investigated, there have been objections. One article in the press last week indicated that educationalists have some concerns that a lot of the casual work involved in opening stores all weekend and for longer hours during the week is work performed mostly by students and that their studies will suffer if they are put under pressure to work more hours. So there needs to be some assurance that it will stimulate job creation and not increase an extension of hours for those who already have jobs. As well, there are industrial relations aspects to such a proposal to be considered.
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