Page 3805 - Week 14 - Thursday, 10 December 1992
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The package for the ACT totals over half-a-million dollars, and it includes funding for two houses for emergency accommodation, a full-time coordinator, an Aboriginal drug, alcohol and HIV/AIDS worker for the Aboriginal Health Service, and a hospital-based Aboriginal liaison worker. In addition, Madam Speaker, free immunisation will be provided for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients, and there will be a series of workshops conducted to educate mainstream health workers about the special needs of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander clients.
Madam Speaker, I need hardly tell members that, whilst the Government has yet to respond to the committee's report on the casino premium, I was absolutely delighted to see leading the committee's recommendations a recommendation for funding of an Aboriginal keeping place in the ACT. I was also delighted to see again the bipartisan support that that recommendation drew in the debate in this chamber. So, Madam Speaker, those are the kinds of issues that we will be dealing with during the International Year of the World's Indigenous Peoples, and I certainly trust that we will again, in dealing with those issues, continue to enjoy a bipartisan approach on them.
Youth Unemployment
MR HUMPHRIES: My question is to the Chief Minister. I refer the Chief Minister to today's youth unemployment figures in the ACT. In November 1991 youth unemployment in the Territory stood at 9.3 per cent. Today it stands at 46.3 per cent, a fivefold increase in 12 months, and that is up from 42.5 per cent in October. Does the Chief Minister concede that a rate of that kind is simply disastrous and that youth unemployment in the Territory is out of control? If she does not concede that, how high does youth unemployment have to be before she will so concede that, and what new steps will she take to arrest the spiral of youth unemployment, other than the clearly ineffective measures that she has announced already?
MS FOLLETT: Madam Speaker, I thank Mr Humphries for the question. The issue of youth unemployment is one that continues to be of grave concern. I make no secret of that fact. I think it is important at the outset, though, to bear in mind that we are dealing with a specific group in our community - 15- to 19-year-olds who are looking for full-time employment. So, it is a relatively small sector of our community and a very small part of the sample size. As I have said many times, the sampling in that area is subject to error, and I think all members accept that.
Nevertheless, Madam Speaker, the figures remain too high. There is no doubt whatsoever in my mind about that. In respect of the last set of figures I actually asked a question about how many people were involved in the sampling of youth unemployment and that confirmed the view that we are looking at a very small sample size. In fact, on last month's figures the ABS survey was based on a sample of residents of one in 115 households. That meant that there were about 2,090 persons interviewed, of which 252 were teenagers in the 15- to 19-year age bracket. So, we are looking at a small number of people and I think that is important.
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