Page 882 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 30 March 1993
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Mr Humphries: For the full year?
MR CONNOLLY: We do not have full year figures; this is the problem.
Mr Humphries: You do for last year.
MR CONNOLLY: In 1991-92 we had seen an increase over 1990-91. Motor vehicle theft was increasing. It is now decreasing; that is the point. The point is that motor vehicle theft, which had been steadily increasing in the ACT, as it had across the rest of Australia, is now starting to come down. New South Wales was the first to detect that. We are now picking that up.
That makes the point, which I was trying to make in answer to the original question, that the way you get on top of endemic crime problems is through toughening the target. Five years ago we would have said, "Motor vehicle theft is an endemic problem and housebreaking is an endemic problem; there is nothing we can do to stop the steady increase in figures". As a nation we are now turning around motor vehicle theft figures. They are turned around in the ACT. Financial year 1991-92 showed an increase over financial year 1990-91, but the current year's figures for the first half of 1992-93 show that we have turned that around and are coming down. Whether you look at that over the first six months of 1992-93 as opposed to the first six months of 1991-92 or whether you look at year to date 1991-92 compared to year to date 1992-93, you still see that it is coming down. It had gone up, but it is coming down.
Youth Unemployment
MS ELLIS: My question is directed to the Chief Minister. I ask: What is the proportion of young people in the ACT who are unemployed? Can you account for the fact that for the period January-February the number of young people unemployed fell by 300 but the unemployment rate for this age group actually increased?
MS FOLLETT: I thank Ms Ellis for the question. A youth unemployment rate running at around 45 per cent reinforces this Government's commitment to give first priority to job creation, and indeed that remains our position. However, it is important to understand what those statistics mean and how they are derived. The first issue that needs to be answered is what it is that the Bureau of Statistics is measuring in looking at youth unemployment. We need to acknowledge that they are not looking at the usual definition of youth, which I would take to be those under 25 or, when you are getting to my age, anyone under 30. What the Bureau of Statistics is looking at is teenagers - those aged 15 to 19 years. So it is a specific group of people. It is not just teenagers, but those teenagers who are seeking full-time employment.
If you break down the statistics, you can see that, of all ACT teenagers, just over 10 per cent are unemployed and seeking full-time employment. So there is a 10 per cent unemployment rate amongst teenagers. Some 12 per cent of them are employed on a full-time basis. Of the remaining 78 per cent of ACT teenagers, the vast majority are at school or in post-school education or training. Some of them are also working part time, so there is an overlap there. But the vast majority of Canberra teenagers, as you would expect, are at school or at some post-school training.
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