Page 3003 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 14 September 1993
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announced in the Federal budget, but there is no evidence that the freezing of the ACT franchise fee since 1990 has encouraged any containment of consumer prices. To counter the lack of competition in the local market, the Government is taking immediate action to reduce Canberra's petrol prices by encouraging independents into the local market. We are confident that our current negotiations with an independent operator will shortly result in new competition.
The Government is determined that our business enterprises should be efficient providers of essential services to our community. The ACT is an active participant in the national move to establish benchmarks for efficiency of government business enterprises. ACTEW is our largest such enterprise and has been improving its efficiency and adjusting its charges to reflect more closely the real costs of electricity and water. It is important during this time that a clear and financially sound basis is used to assess the dividend from ACTEW to the budget. A dividend based on substitute payments for Commonwealth taxes and one-half of after-tax profits has been determined, yielding $24.5m in 1993-94 compared to $19.5m last year. A small number of properties have been identified as surplus to Territory needs. Their sale is estimated to raise an extra $11m above the regular land development program in 1993-94.
I turn now to our social justice goals. In our present hard times, governments should give special consideration to those who have been hit hardest by the recession. This Government is determined that, despite our harsh treatment by the Commonwealth, we will continue our commitment to social justice in our community. Reducing unemployment is the Government's highest priority. To this end, the budget provides an employment package costing around $1.5m in each of 1993-94 and 1994-95. It is shaped to provide training and employment services to identified disadvantaged groups within the ACT labour market.
The Jobskills program will continue to fund training positions for the long-term unemployed. New funding will provide 100 places in 1993-94 and 85 places in 1994-95. A new program, Youth Joblink, will provide up to 150 work placements for 15- to 19-year-olds in the private sector with the assistance of Commonwealth Government wage subsidies. Both the ACT Chamber of Commerce and the Commonwealth Employment Service have agreed to participate actively in the delivery of this program.
Unemployed Aboriginal peoples and Torres Strait Islanders will benefit from the establishment of a new specialist employment team. This team will work with Aboriginal communities, relevant Commonwealth agencies and the ACT Government to increase Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples' participation in existing employment programs. Other groups will benefit from the labour market initiatives. For older people who have been retrenched or are otherwise unemployed, a program called "A New Future in Small Business" will provide training in the establishment of a small business. The tradeswomen on the move scheme will be expanded into further non-traditional career areas for young women.
Madam Speaker, concessions expenditures are a significant part of the ACT budget, costing around $16m this financial year. In 1991 the Government invited public comment on a review of the concessions system and proposed a number of principles for reform. Arising from this review and the comments we have received, I am pleased to announce a package of reforms which seeks to focus concessions expenditure on those in greatest need. From 1 October 1993
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