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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 9 Hansard (27 August) . . Page.. 2601 ..

MR KAINE (continuing):

intriguing. In the information that I have been reading there are predictions of upwards of 1,000 jobs involved. Chief Minister, can you provide the Assembly with details of this project - just what it means - and can you confirm the accuracy of these predictions in connection with job opportunities?

MRS CARNELL: Thank you very much, Mr Kaine, for the question. I think it is really quite tragic that those opposite cannot even embrace what is a very exciting proposal for the ACT and one that will give a lot of people an opportunity for jobs. Mr Speaker, they simply cannot let something like "This is positive for Canberra" come out of their mouths; they cannot make it come out of their mouths.

The agreement signed with Unisys yesterday is a statement of intent which commits both parties to developing a training and business services centre in Canberra to address the year 2000 problem. This is an exciting opportunity for Canberra, Mr Speaker. At a time of job-shedding in the public sector it has the capacity to generate more than 1,000 training employment opportunities for Canberrans.

Mr Berry: Not jobs.

MRS CARNELL: More than 1,000 jobs.

Ms Follett: For Canberra?

MRS CARNELL: More than 1,000 jobs for Canberrans.

Mr Berry: All for Canberra?

MRS CARNELL: That is right. Whether or not you can accept that, it is the case. I repeat: It is more than 1,000 training employment opportunities for Canberra. That is based upon industry assessments, not our assessments, Mr Speaker. Those words were not used by us until industry themselves said that. Actually, they believed that was a very conservative figure.

A further advantage is that the vast majority of these opportunities will be on a consulting and contract basis and will provide a great deal of flexibility, Mr Speaker. That flexibility will allow for women who might want to stay at home, to work a few hours a week, through to people who want to work 100 hours a week, if that is what they want to do. It is an agreement that plays on our strengths. It draws upon Canberra's reputation of educational excellence, our skilled work force and our vibrant and growing information technology industry. Mr Speaker, again I say that those opposite are just having a moan and a groan about something that produces real jobs for this city. We are working with Unisys Australia to address the year 2000 problem. We are the first government in the country, I think, to take this problem seriously. It puts Canberra in the box seat to win a big proportion of the anticipated thousands upon thousands of jobs to be created by efforts to fix the problem.

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