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starting, and there have been a number of other proposals which have been around for ages and which have developed over the term that this Legislative Assembly has been operating. There is an immense amount that can be done there, and there are some really exciting projects that can happen there for the benefit of all Canberrans. At least the Chief Minister achieved a swap that will enable the Territory to go ahead and develop in a very exciting and, I think, innovative way a large area of land, which can only benefit Canberra and the Territory.

Mr Berry commented about jobs. Such a development as that will provide jobs. I find it quite amazing that Mr Berry has accused this Government, which has been in office for about seven weeks, of creating a huge downturn in jobs in the Territory. I do not think his Government, which was in office for about 3½ years, did terribly much to assist jobs. They were certainly not assisted by their comrades over the lake in the Federal Labor Government, which has been presiding over record high levels of unemployment in Australia - levels that touched at times those experienced during the Great Depression, and certainly levels of unemployment that have been consistently the worst since the Great Depression. Tragically, because of Federal Government policy, many of those unemployed are the young. We are now seeing people in a generational situation of unemployment, with the tragic figure of 25 to 30 per cent of youth unemployed. There is only so much that a State or Territory government can do; but I do not think the last Government, the Follett Government, did very much to help there. A lot of the blame can be sheeted home to where it really lies, and that is with the Federal Government, which has been in power now for some 12 years. I think we need to bear that in mind when we talk about jobs and lack of job opportunities, especially and tragically for our youth. At the other end of the scale are people in their mid-40s and older, who have immense difficulty getting jobs when they are retrenched. That is also a great human tragedy and something the Federal Government especially cannot be proud of.

With the innovative approach in the Chief Minister's address to this Assembly, we are very mindful of doing what we can as a government to create job opportunities for people in Canberra. The refreshing approach in terms of business, especially small business, and some of the initiatives this Government will be taking in that regard can only assist in increasing real jobs in Canberra. As a member of the Government I look forward to working to see that occur. A number of the things we enunciated during the election campaign and a number of the ideas we are getting from the business community and other people can only assist in creating real employment in this Territory.

Mr Berry talked about the budget being a whole lot of froth and bubble. Unfortunately, and rather tragically, the previous Government was not terribly good with its figures. It certainly was not good in terms of reading the electorate and it was not good in terms of the basic arithmetic the Chief Minister has set out here, where we end up about $60m short; where we have $12m, but $31m of very worthwhile projects that people want to see happen. We were left with a budget situation that is very hard and is going to cause a lot of difficulty. It needs to be sorted out, and it is not going to be easy. The previous Government has to wear the blame for that because they did not leave the Territory finances in a terribly - - -

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