Page 2257 - Week 09 - Tuesday, 15 September 1992
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Madam Speaker, I will now turn to the specific expenditure initiatives in the budget. Firstly, as to new employment measures, the availability of employment is fundamental to the future well-being of Canberra's community. It is a cornerstone of social justice. My Government's economic development strategy is similarly focused on employment. It is a comprehensive and carefully targeted strategy which comprises direct funding of job creation through training and work experience programs, through increased capital works and through support to the private sector to promote the growth of local industry.
Madam Speaker, my Government actively supports vocationally related training and direct work experience as two of the most effective measures to assist people to gain and retain employment. We are directly funding programs for our youth and for others in the community. This budget will provide over 220 new places this year in government employment and training schemes. We are establishing an ACT Youth Conservation Corps, at a cost of $200,000 in 1992-93, which will provide 40 places this year and 80 places in a full year.
Under the umbrella of special youth employment initiatives, we will spend $600,000 in 1992-93 to provide temporary employment for 30 young people for six months, to provide 10 additional traineeship places and an additional nine apprenticeships. An additional $200,000 will be provided through the new enterprise incentive scheme and the employment and training grants program. The ACT Jobskills program will provide training and work for 100 long-term unemployed people at a cost of $1.1m. An additional $300,000 will be spent annually on the mature age women's traineeships scheme to provide 20 places on each occasion.
The ACT is a party to the new national vocational education and training arrangements. We are submitting pilot projects to the Commonwealth for funding under the Carmichael initiatives. Our partnership with the Commonwealth is already improving our ability to upgrade work force skills and opportunities for vocational education. In 1992-93 TAFE expenditure will be increased by some 9 per cent to $56.4m. This additional $4.4m will provide over 500 more places in the ACT institute to significantly improve access and reduce unmet demand. Student fees have been restructured to allow payment on a semester basis, thereby reducing the burden on students.
I turn, Madam Speaker, to jobs through capital works. This budget builds on our accelerated works program and on the Commonwealth's major projects which will itself provide a further 2,000 jobs. We have increased expenditure on our own capital works from $130m in 1991-92 to $147.2m this year. The projects include $20.5m this year on new infrastructure in Gungahlin and $48.5m this year on building better hospital and health facilities. The Tuggeranong swimming complex will be completed at a cost of $8.7m to this budget. Stage 1 of the courts complex will commence. This is a $17m project. The new police complex will commence, at a total project cost of $7m. Conder Primary and Preschool will also be started, at a cost of $7.2m. In addition to those works, the Housing Trust will spend $40.5m on its own capital works program in 1992-93 and ACTEW will spend $31m. Overall, this represents an increase in the ACT's public sector expenditure of $32.8m on 1991-92 and will support 3,400 jobs. This is an increase in the order of 300 jobs in the industry and a flow-on employment of about 220 jobs in other sectors.
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