Page 884 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 30 March 1993
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looked for work at any time in the four weeks up to the end of the survey week, who were available for work, or who were waiting to start a new job or to be called back to a job from which they had been stood down without pay for less than four weeks up to the end of the survey week. So it is a very specific definition.
By contrast, the Department of Social Security counts only those people who are unemployed and who receive benefits. The definition of "unemployed" that is used by DSS is those who are not working more than 12 hours a week and have registered themselves with the Commonwealth Employment Service as being unemployed and seeking work and are prepared to work on a full-time basis. So there is a definitional difference there. The ABS monthly survey of the labour force, on the other hand, produces an estimate of the number and proportion of unemployed in the labour force. The ABS and DSS figures differ because not all unemployed people register with the CES, which is a prerequisite for receiving unemployment benefits.
MR STEVENSON: Madam Speaker, I ask a supplementary question. I also asked how the total figures compared with each other. In other words, how many people in the ACT are registered as unemployed and how many people are receiving unemployment benefits?
MS FOLLETT: I do not have those figures available to me, Madam Speaker. I can certainly look them up for Mr Stevenson.
Motor Vehicle Thefts
MR DE DOMENICO: Madam Speaker, my question without notice is to the Minister responsible for police, Mr Connolly. I refer to the police brief supplied to the Minister and upon which the Minister relied last week in suggesting that car theft was on the decline in the ACT. An article in yesterday's Canberra Times stated that a copy of the brief had been issued by the Minister. Will he therefore table the brief in the Assembly?
MR CONNOLLY: Madam Speaker, no, I certainly will not table the brief; nor have I provided the brief to anyone, because the brief contains extensive material which is of a highly confidential nature.
Mr Humphries: Like what?
MR CONNOLLY: It contains monthly police material.
Mr Humphries: Why is that confidential?
MR CONNOLLY: Because, Mr Humphries, no State or Territory produces that material. Madam Speaker, I have had checked this morning the practice in Queensland, New South Wales and Victoria. In each of those States, two of which have the misfortune of living under a Liberal government, the practice is that police crime statistics are accountable to the parliament by means of an annual report. That is the situation here, and it is very accountable. In every State, monthly summary material is treated as highly confidential. It has internal classifications of "police restricted" or higher. That is because it shows breakdowns, month by month, region by region, of where crime is occurring. That varies from month to month. In one month there will be a higher rate of housebreaking in Belconnen than there is in Woden and Tuggeranong.
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