Page 754 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 24 March 1993
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If you cannot face up to where you are at in life you cannot do anything with it. Where do you go? How do you change things for the better? Until you go through this constant self-analysis, nothing will ever change. All I am trying to say to the Government is that unless you really come to terms with the severity of the unemployment problem you will never feel compelled to take the right course of action. You will never see that it requires some pretty bold moves. There is only one way out of that situation, and that is to recognise it and understand it.
Madam Speaker, to prove that I am not the old doom and gloom Westende that some of the government members would like to think I am, I would like to outline some positive solutions and some directions that I would like to see for the future. I believe that the Government really has to take the lead in bringing about recovery. Business will not grow without a feeling of confidence that they have the support of the Government. If they do not grow they do not employ, and it is as simple as all that. You cannot expect business simply to expand through some altruistic motive that it is good for society. Some businesses certainly do have this wider objective, but primarily they will expand only if it makes good business sense to do so.
Madam Speaker, I would normally be inclined to talk about some business solutions to the underlying malaise that is holding back employment opportunities, but I thought I would take a different approach and talk about the significance of creating new opportunities in Canberra, a new and exciting vision for the national capital, a vision that can really grab the imagination of the business community both here and nationally, and, indeed, the general population. I would therefore like to see the Government become entrepreneurial to bring about development and growth in the ACT. I would like it to set out an exciting and ambitious plan for the Territory - things that really grab people's imagination and interest. It is surprising what can be achieved with this kind of approach. We cannot sit back and wait for the recovery. The Government can lead us to recovery and I would like to think that we on this side can play some part in that process in a really positive way.
I really believe that the combined resources of the Assembly could excite the Territory with some great initiatives that were project orientated - in other words, not just talk. If we could do this, I am sure that we could attract many more people to our city, both as visitors and to live here. This would create jobs. Without doubt, we have an enviable tourist potential. We all recognise this. Perhaps we could be doing much more in the way of creating new attractions. I think we are now promoting the ones we do have quite well, but we need new attractions. The longer we keep people in the city, the more we will benefit by it and the more demand there will be for labour, for workers.
I believe that to a certain extent we are allowing tourism to grow at its own pace rather than giving it a prod along. I mentioned Canberry Fair yesterday. If we were really going for the tourism dollar as hard as we could, we would not have let that site wait for so long in such an unproductive and wasteful way. We would have been looking for a solution. Let us not delude ourselves that every winner for the tourism industry means jobs and prosperity for the ACT.
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