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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 8 Hansard (27 June) . . Page.. 2425 ..

MR WHITECROSS (continuing):

of course, it will -

we expect them to be small in number but they will be absorbed quickly into group and local centres.

How does he know? He does not know.

Mr Moore: He has not done the analysis.

MR WHITECROSS: He has not done any analysis. He was not able to produce any analysis. A spokesman for the Chief Minister said the Government does - - -

Mr Moore: It is really the Deputy Chief Minister's responsibility, but you have all these spokesmen speaking instead of him.

MR WHITECROSS: I will get to the Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Moore. The spokesman for the Chief Minister said:

The Government does not believe the restricted trading hours at Town Centres will have a negative impact on employment.

What analysis? There is no analysis. Mr De Domenico, the Minister for Business, said:

These restrictions on Town Centres will ensure that many old and new jobs remain available in Group Centres.

Once again, there has been no analysis. Mr Speaker, this is the same Government that, when told about Public Service cuts, said, "No worries. They will all get jobs in the private sector. So what?". This has been their record all along. Close your eyes and wish, and it will be so. Maybe Mr Humphries has his red slippers on and he clicks his heels three times and imagines that none of the people in supermarkets are going to lose jobs. Mr Speaker, I have heard more persuasive arguments about jobs from the people on the other side of this debate than I have from the Government. The argument goes like this: If your shop is open for fewer hours, you do not need as many people to run it; if for all the hours that you have the shop open the person operating the cash register has to run a few more customers through, then that does not create any employment but just keeps the staff busier. There is a difference between the analysis that Mr Humphries has done and the analysis that has been done on the other side. Mr Humphries just hopes. He just wants to wish the problem away, because he knows that at a time of rising unemployment, at a time when job opportunities in this community are declining because of the Liberal governments, local and Federal, he is going to put another 300 people out of work, and he does not want that on his conscience. The Greens do not want that on their conscience but they are going to have it anyway, because the fact is that there will be people out of work because of this.

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