Page 2355 - Week 09 - Wednesday, 16 September 1992
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Budget - Employment and Training
MS ELLIS: My question is directed to the Chief Minister. How many new jobs and work experience and training positions are created by the budget?
MS FOLLETT: It will be clear to all members that the Government's budget had as its priority job generation and training, and I think that is an appropriate priority, particularly in these times. You can clearly identify 1,200 new jobs and training opportunities generated by the budget. They are additional places over and above the normal run of positions created by the Government's activities.
I will go through some of those opportunities, for the information of members. There are 220 new places in government work experience and training, and there is, furthermore, an increase in capital works expenditure of a total of $32.8m, which will support an additional 300 jobs. That is 300 over what the normal capital works budget would have supported. Those are jobs in the building and construction industry. There will be a flow-on of an additional 220 jobs in other industries such as retail and finance, property and business services, and so on.
Particularly on the training side, there are 500 additional places provided for in TAFE as a result of significant Commonwealth funding under the Australian National Training Authority agreement and our own and the Commonwealth's training initiatives. In addition, there is funding in the budget for 100 places in the ACT's own Jobskills program. That provides paid work experience and training opportunities for people over 21 and, largely, people who have been unemployed in the longer term.
There is provision for additional employment and development opportunities for youth in the 15 to 19 years age group through a work force development scheme that will provide employment for 30 young people, 10 of whom would be part time; for 10 additional places under the Australian traineeship scheme; and for nine additional apprenticeships. We will be establishing the ACT's youth conservation corps, which will provide 40 places in the current year and 80 places in subsequent years, for young unemployed people to gain workplace training and experience. We have established, as well, the mature age women's traineeship scheme to provide women over the age of 30 years who have been out of the work force for some time with appropriate work experience and training to assist them in gaining further employment. There will be 20 of those places offered this year.
We have added to the funding for the new enterprise incentive scheme, which will enable the establishment of a further 12 self-employment ventures by people who are unemployed. We have increased the funding under the employment and training grants program to provide additional support to community organisations, which in turn provide employment and training opportunities for people who have been disadvantaged in the labour market. I believe that that latter program is particularly effective in providing training opportunities, but it is difficult to quantify the number of people who will go through those community programs.
In addition to those readily quantifiable places, the Government has taken a range of economic development initiatives designed to stimulate employment growth, in particular in the private sector, and to take advantage of opportunities as they emerge. They include the provision of funding for the Tourism Development
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