Page 2624 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 October 1992
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higher employment participation rate; but the casino recruits alone could perhaps account for that change. The Chief Minister has informed the Assembly that the EPACT report has gone to individual government departments to ascertain whether there is anything within its recommendations that can be adopted to boost the employment of young people in each of the ministerial portfolios, but there is no word yet from the Chief Minister on the results of those examinations.
What, apart from the increased funding for Jobline and the introduction of several training schemes, can the Government identify as a real and lasting contribution that it has made to the employment of our young people? I have heard some reports in the media that we should ban young people from Garema Place because they are effectively making it look untidy. Perhaps we should encourage them to frequent the plaza in front of the Legislative Assembly building so that the Government will identify these statistics as real people.
The Chief Minister, in responding to Thursday's unemployment figures, used a line which has been made infamous by her national political leader, Mr Paul Keating, who, when chided about the recession, said that technically it was over and that the economy was recovering. Ms Follett claimed, if the article which appeared in the Canberra Times is correct, that Canberra has had strong employment growth for three months, indicating that the economy is recovering from the recession. The story also cites the Chief Minister as saying, with regard to the employment statistics:
... the figures bespoke an accelerating ACT economy, with increased business confidence, renewed investment and hiring of employees.
Madam Speaker, if Canberra's level of youth unemployment is only in line with the national average, it is still growing. Where is the increased business confidence? Where are the renewed investment and the hiring of employees taking place? Ms Ellis, in an interview reported in the Valley View in June this year, stated:
Ambitious plans by the ACT Government to help the young unemployed will be of special benefit to the Valley's youth.
Commenting on the release of the EPACT report, Ms Ellis stated that the key aspect of the report was that job generation was to be seen as an issue both for the Government and for the community, and she endorsed the need for job creation. Four months after the release of that report I again ask: What has been done? Where are the concrete figures of what is defined as the problem? What are the achievable outcomes, and how far have we gone towards achieving these goals?
Ms Ellis spoke of community involvement. As a member of the community, I would like to know what proposals exist for involving the community in finding jobs for our young people, and what input the community has into the establishment of the programs that have been announced in the budget. The Valley View report went on to say that the Chief Minister was interested in public comment and provided an address for the Industry Policy Coordination Branch of the Economic Development Division. What is the division doing to find out the extent of youth unemployment in Canberra? If there is to be a policy unit involved in decisions affecting this group, should not the target group be quantified so that we as an Assembly know how much of our available resources
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