Page 442 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 2 March 1994
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Ms Follett: Unemployment, I said, and we have the lowest in the country.
MR DE DOMENICO: Unemployment, total unemployment - and she always wants to sit back on her laurels and say, "We have the lowest unemployment in the country". We have. We always will have and we always have had. Notwithstanding that, let us have a look at what has happened under Ms Follett. The number of young people employed in the work force fell from 5,000 to 2,800, a drop of 40 per cent. The number on the unemployment benefit has gone up by 21 per cent. Let us also note that we are going to be borrowing $200m over four years. Mr Wood interjected before and he said, "Yes, but we have a AAA rating". Mr Wood, we may have a AAAA rating, but how many jobs is that going to create? Not one; not according to this speech anyway.
Mr Lamont: A darn sight more than you - sacking half the public service, getting rid of half of ACTION, and all the rest of it.
MR DE DOMENICO: I will take that one on board, Madam Speaker. Whenever Mr Lamont interjects it gives me great delight because he digs his own hole. Mr Lamont talked about the public service. Mr Lamont would remember that as far back as May 1992 the Chief Minister received some correspondence from Mr Keating suggesting that she ought to be doing something about creating her own public service. When this Assembly decided to form a committee to oversight the creation of the ACT public service, Ms Follett and others stood up and pre-empted it all, saying, "The Liberal Party will probably try to stall the passage of the legislation". We are still waiting for the legislation. The PSU has seen it. They are not elected members of this Assembly.
Mr Lamont: Tut, tut, tut!
MR DE DOMENICO: Mr Lamont can "tut, tut, tut" all he likes. That shows the scant responsibility he has. Members of this Assembly ought to have a copy of the legislation before anybody else does.
Another statement Ms Follett made, on page 3, was this:
We will again consider the special needs of unemployed young people.
Ms Follett has been considering the special needs of unemployed young people since she was elected as Chief Minister. Mind you, she has not done anything about it. She is still considering the special needs. Let us wait and see what the wonderful fruits of her consideration will be. I have just a few suggestions. Mr Wood was criticising Mrs Carnell and others for not suggesting alternatives to the way the Government is doing things. Mr Westende, quite clearly, talked about ACTION buses. Who could ever forget the press release that Mr Connolly put out last week when he did a deal with the Transport Workers Union? I think the press release read, "Win, win, win, win, win, win, win; everybody is winning. This will mean that there will be no disruption in the buses for evermore". What happened 48 hours later? About 120 buses were off the road because the other union that he did not do a deal with disagreed. Mr Westende quite adequately pointed out that we could be saving millions upon millions of dollars in one area alone.
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