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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 4 Hansard (16 April) . . Page.. 913 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Mr Speaker, ACT public servants and others will be able to look to the private sector for jobs simply because this Government has taken the approach that the previous Government should have taken, and that is to start putting in place programs and approaches that actually encourage business in this city. If that had been done three or four years ago, we would not be in the current position. During the last 12 months of the Follett Government, I think there were 700 extra jobs created - only 700 in 12 months. That really showed an economy that was screaming to a halt. How much money was in the bank when we took over government? There was a big fat zero. That is what we were facing.

Mr Berry: How much is in the bank now, Kate? Tell us.

MRS CARNELL: I can tell you that it is not zero. Under this Government, in the 14 months that we have been in power, even with all of the problems that a Federal election causes the ACT economy, we still have 2,300 more jobs than we had when we took over. That compares with 700 extra jobs that were created in the previous 12 months, when there was not even a Federal election in sight.

Let me mention the sorts of things that we have done, Mr Speaker, in an attempt - I think, a very successful attempt in many circumstances - to encourage private sector employment in the ACT. They include projects like AOFR, which in the next couple of years will actually employ an extra 300 people.

Mr Berry: Is that all?

MRS CARNELL: Mr Berry asks, "Is that all?". Mr Berry does not think 300 people are important. He obviously does not care about 300 extra people or new jobs for the ACT. It is those sorts of programs which create not just any jobs but jobs with a very definite future, ones that give this Territory an opportunity to move away from being a company town, where we rely totally on a single employer - two employers, I suppose, if you take into account the ACT Government. The Federal Government has been the major employer in the ACT since Canberra was established. We simply have to move away from that.

Why do we have to move away from it, Mr Speaker? We have to ask: How many people did the previous Labor Federal Government get rid of last year? How many redundancies were offered by the Labor Federal Government last year alone? The answer is 5,500. Where was Mr Whitecross then? How many people were offered redundancies by the previous Labor Federal Government over the past, I think, seven years? The answer is 18,000. That is the sort of figure we are talking about. The realities are that it is up to every government - - -

Mr Whitecross: Talk about selective statistics!

MRS CARNELL: You asked the question, not me.

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