Page 757 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 24 March 1993
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While it has been only a month since this issue was debated, I am happy to reiterate that the Government is committed to addressing the issue and to remind members again of the action we have taken to address unemployment. Unemployment is too high. You have never heard me say anything other than that. Although the ACT has fared relatively well throughout the recession, there are still significant numbers of Canberrans out of work and they are bearing the consequent human and economic costs of their situation. This is not acceptable. It is not acceptable to the Government and we certainly will not shirk our responsibility for tackling this problem, and we never have. I have said before as well that the ACT Government is only a small player in the big economic picture, and I would ask members to take that statement to heart.
In the short term the options that are open to my Government to address this problem are fairly limited, although we are exploring all of them. Macro-economic policy is determined and implemented by the Federal Government, and we should be thankful that those who are moving the macro-economic levers also have a clear and strong commitment to beating the blight of unemployment. That commitment has been made quite explicit by the Prime Minister. He has also made a commitment to addressing the needs of people who, very unhappily, remain unemployed. Nevertheless, we must face up to the problem, as Mr Westende has said, and that is what the Government does.
We have always given the fight against unemployment No. 1 priority, and we have created real jobs - for example, 330 additional jobs created by accelerating the capital works program; 350 jobs in the interim casino; 280 jobs in the construction of the permanent casino, which is on time; 500 jobs in the permanent casino when it is completed. There are other practical steps that we are taking, all of which will result in jobs. Our policy is to work closely with business, with industry, the unions, and the community, both on individual projects and more generally through the consultative forums that we have established. In particular, Madam Speaker, I have asked my Economic Priorities Advisory Committee to advise me on a business development strategy for the ACT. That work is well advanced, and I am very much looking forward to receiving their advice on it. Canberra has ceased to be solely a public service town, although, as I have said before, the public sector will always be an important area of economic activity to us. The Government does recognise the crucial importance of the private sector to our economic future.
Madam Speaker, if I may for one moment be critical of members opposite, I do wish that they would cease talking down the ACT's economy. There is too much gloom and doom coming from members opposite. They ought to be trying to instil some confidence in the private sector as well. As an example of our cooperative and strategic approach, we have provided $100,000 for a study of the feasibility of establishing an international air freight centre at Canberra Airport. Madam Speaker, my voice has gone. I will take a break.
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