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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2417 ..

MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, this is about the general effect of this Bill on the economy of the Australian Capital Territory, and it is closely linked. Mr Speaker, in the Public Service the annual change from May to May, 1995 to 1996, was a drop of 30.9 per cent. So in the public sector, with the joint effects of Mrs Carnell's activities and Mr Howard's, we have a crisis in total job vacancies, but that pales into insignificance when you have a look at the private sector. Mr Speaker, how could anybody at this time, no matter what your policies are on shopping hours, add another 300 to the list? That is the issue. If you were going to pick a time to do something, why would you pick now? There is just no rhyme or reason to do this. The policy will not achieve what the Liberals are pretending it will achieve. It will achieve nothing but trouble, more trouble, for small business.

This policy does not even head in the directions the Greens want it to. In fact, it goes the other way. The Greens make claims that they care for business. Well, not for the little ones who are going to be hurt by those 24-hour traders that are dumped on their back doorstep. Let us not kid ourselves about that. They are small business now but they are going to be smaller as a result of having 24-hour traders on their back doorstep. There is no way of avoiding that. The Greens say they care for the local economy. The Liberals say that too, but who takes any notice of them these days? The Greens claim they care for the local economy too. I am afraid you are not doing it any good with this policy because it is not going to improve the situation. You cannot throw 300 people on the unemployment list and think that that will do something for the local economy, especially against the background of those job vacancies that I just mentioned to you. It is crisis time.

The Greens say they support local libraries. Well, Mr Speaker, local shopping centres are in deep trouble. I think about Kippax and libraries in that area, and in other areas - - -

Mr Humphries: What has this to do with libraries?

MR BERRY: The Greens say they care for local communities. Well, not the ones that work at the town centres because they are the ones who are going to lose their jobs. Mr Speaker, when you sit back and have a look at this it would cause anybody in the community to raise their eyebrows and wonder what the hell is going on. The Liberals are going through this pretence of helping small business with a policy that helps no-one, but they have put a sunset clause on it anyway, just in case. Mrs Carnell says, "Well, if nobody wants it I will dump it", but she is going to dump - - -

Mrs Carnell: I said if it did not work I would dump it.

MR BERRY: You are going to dump it anyway.

Mrs Carnell: No.

MR BERRY: Yes, you are. You said that in two years' time you are going to dump it anyway.

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