Page 764 - Week 03 - Wednesday, 24 March 1993
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .
The authors estimate that, if unemployment were reduced to 6.5 per cent nationally, then the divorce rate could fall by just over 800 annually, marriages would increase, and there would be around 20 fewer homicides per year. This is a significant list of events that could follow from a reduction in unemployment and a compelling argument for giving this problem all of our attention and effort.
The director of the Office of EPAC, Professor Glenn Withers, has issued a note of caution in his statement on the release of this report stating:
... it is important also to realise that achieving the benefits of lower unemployment is not easy. Abandoning the achievement of sustainable lower levels of inflation, or creating a further blowout in Australia's current account deficit would also impose high costs on Australians. Governments face a difficult task: they must strike a balance between these different areas of policy. This can only be made easier if they develop new pro-employment policies which minimise other economic costs.
That is a fair enough statement, but when push comes to shove the main focus must be to provide the jobs that are the top priority for Australians, as shown by the pre-election surveys. What is incumbent on all elected members is to ensure that in pursuing economic goals we do not overlook the basic reason that we are in parliaments, and that is to serve the electors of Australia. We are not here to serve an economic goal. Economic rationalisation has had its day and we must return to a more compassionate and caring society where there is a balance between economic goals which are put in place to serve the community and the needs of people within that community to participate in the economic life of that community. In current terms that means being in worthwhile paid employment.
Mr Deputy Speaker, we have the situation where, on the basis of the trend series figures from the Australian Bureau of Statistics, total unemployment fell from a high of 8.4 per cent in August last year to 6.7 per cent in February, although the non-adjusted unemployment rate for the Territory was 8.8 per cent. What is disturbing - it has been commented on by Mr Westende - and is hidden in these figures is a youth unemployment rate of 45.2 per cent for the month of February. Arguments about the size of the sample and whether it is representative or not do not alter the fact that the situation has not improved, and the collection of data has improved only marginally in the past 12 months. I have said before, and I repeat, that we need more reliable and relative data collection and a recognition that underemployment is also a very important issue, particularly for young people who may be employed in a part-time capacity because of the lack of full-time job opportunities.
Mr Deputy Speaker, the matter of public importance is in truth exactly that - a matter that the public feels is important. The issue of unemployment has a human face and we ignore that not only at the peril of ourselves but at the cost of future generations of wage earners who will face an increasing need to fund programs which address the needs of the long-term unemployed. We will also have missed out on a quite large loss of gross domestic product, as outlined in the EPAC report I have quoted previously. Then there are the social costs - the people and families who become frustrated and depressed by their circumstances. With the best will in the world, and even knowing that the labour
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .