Page 756 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 24 March 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
We should be selling Canberra as a place in which to live and to set up business. I know that some work is done in this area, but we are cautious in our response to new business. We are too regulatory, and this gets in the way of the momentum of developers. Business opportunities are turned away.
Madam Speaker, these are some ways that we can positively do something about the unacceptable high levels of unemployment. I believe that I have outlined some practical solutions that could really grab the imagination of people, whether business leaders or, indeed, the unemployed. I believe that I have outlined hope and an exciting future. My speech has been far from pessimistic. I have a great desire for success for this beautiful city and I think it warrants our being more daring and less inhibited. We have to take some risks. We can do it. Let us do it now.
MS FOLLETT (Chief Minister and Treasurer) (3.27): Madam Speaker, it is only a month since this matter was raised in the Assembly by Mr Westende but it has been a very crucial month, both for the nation and for Canberra, especially. I refer, of course, Madam Speaker, to the re-election of the national Labor Government by the Australian people. What Mr Westende has failed to observe in any of his remarks is that only Labor governments will protect the public sector, and in the ACT the public sector is still our biggest employer. The Commonwealth Government is still our biggest employer here in Canberra.
You have to contrast that commitment by Labor to employment in this Territory with what Dr Hewson was planning, which was to slash over 3,000 jobs from the public sector and which would have resulted in the loss of a further 1,900 jobs in the private sector. You have to contrast the commitment by Labor, both federally and locally, to a project like the National Museum, which has never been matched by the Liberals. Mr Westende is talking to me about new and exciting visions for the ACT; yet they have completely ignored the National Museum and what a new and exciting venture that is for the ACT.
Madam Speaker, I respect Mr Westende for having put up a range of new projects, but he has not mentioned some of the other projects that are going ahead - for example, the boatshed development down by the lake, or the reopening of the opal museum under a completely new guise. There are things happening. I accept that Mr Westende has a lot of other ideas, but he should not pretend that nobody is making investment in this town, because they are.
I said earlier that Mr Westende's idea of banning overtime would, in my view, not create additional jobs, and I will stick to that point. I find it ironic in the extreme that Mr Westende apparently does not understand the kind of employment that occurs across the ACT Government Service. I think it would be a nonsense to suggest to, say, police officers or a senior nurse in the theatre ward or a salaried medical officer that they ought to knock off at 5 o'clock so that we can hire some school leavers. That is just a nonsense. I do not think that Mr Westende understands the range of employment that exists in the public sector in the ACT, and the fact that people are not interchangeable. They have particular skills. Their jobs make particular demands. The community has particular needs of our employees. They are not just cogs in a wheel.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .