Page 1840 - Week 07 - Wednesday, 19 August 1992
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MADAM SPEAKER: Order!
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, as I said in answer to Mr De Domenico's question, the 2,000-plus jobs that will be engendered by the Federal Government's construction programs in the ACT are not really mine to pick and choose. I am afraid members opposite are going to have to allow the normal hiring activities to occur in relation to those jobs. They are no more able to say that a proportion of them should go to women than to say, as Mr De Domenico would, that they should all go to ACT residents. That is clearly not the case.
I would like to add, Madam Speaker, that the jobs that will be generated by the Commonwealth's construction program in the ACT are not just in the construction industry; there will be a flow-on effect from this economic injection that will, of course, cover the whole spectrum of ACT employment. It will include employment categories like the retail sector, the housing sector - obviously, all sorts of employment areas where there are large numbers of women - architecture, designing, fit-out and so on. I think I can leave it to Mrs Carnell's imagination to realise that a flow-on effect from these construction jobs will, of course, have a very good impact on the employment of women. They will be a very useful adjunct, I believe, to the programs that the Government has undertaken, aimed at increasing women's opportunities in the workplace, their ability to re-enter the workplace when they have been absent for a period, and their choices in paid employment.
MRS CARNELL: Madam Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. The Chief Minister might like to tell me how many of the 2,000-odd women who have lost their full-time jobs this year could look to getting jobs as a result of this flow-on effect in the next 12 months.
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I really think that Mrs Carnell is asking me to speculate and to offer an opinion, which is totally out of order. She is doing it from the worst possible motives. I do not believe that members opposite care at all about the position of women in the workplace, and if they did - - -
Mr Humphries: On a point of order, Madam Speaker: You ruled earlier today that comments that cast aspersions on the motives - - -
Mr Berry: That is not a point of order.
Mr Humphries: It is a point of order, if you would not mind letting me finish it, Mr Berry. Madam Speaker, you made a ruling earlier today that the comments that made imputations against other members were out of order. Ms Follett has made a very clear imputation that Mrs Carnell specifically does not care about the employment of women in the work force, and she should withdraw it.
MADAM SPEAKER: Ms Follett was not making personal imputations; she was making a general comment. Proceed, Ms Follett.
MS FOLLETT: Thank you, Madam Speaker. If members opposite did care at all, Madam Speaker, they would have listened far more carefully to the outline of actions which the Government has taken to improve women's position in the paid work force, instead of seeking to take cheap political points in the way that Mrs Carnell has done. They are acutely embarrassed to see a Federal Labor government which is taking action aimed at improving the economic lot of everybody in the ACT.
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