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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 11 Hansard (24 September) . . Page.. 3275 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

This Minister has reduced the funds available for training by his fanatical zeal to reduce the levy. Now he wants to use funds from the long service leave component of the fund, outside of the 10 per cent. That is quite inappropriate, and it does not have the support of the board. You have not come in here - - -

Mr De Domenico: Which board?

MR BERRY: The Long Service Leave Board. You have not come in here with their support. They are the funding organisation in relation to this matter. This Minister, who thinks he can pull the wool over our eyes, has another think coming. The Government, and this Minister in particular, reduced the funding available for training. It does not have the support of the Long Service Leave Board in its pursuit of this matter. It is clear that this funding at least equals the deficit in the MBA training scheme's budget. For those reasons, the Bill has to be opposed. (Extension of time granted)

You have to come back to the basic point when you are considering this issue - the Government's performance in relation to employment. This is a government that makes all the phoney claims, makes all the phoney promises, and expects people to believe them without question. This Government's record is shameful. Just ask the 3,400 people who are unemployed as a result of the activities of the Government.

Mrs Carnell: You just want to make sure that some of those stay unemployed.

MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell interjects that I want to make sure that some people stay unemployed. That is absolute rubbish. For somebody like Mrs Carnell, who cut $6m worth of job projects out of the ACT funding, to make those sort of comments is an absolute joke.

Mr De Domenico: Mr Speaker, I raise a point of order.

MR SPEAKER: Sit down, Mr Berry. There is a point of order.

Mr De Domenico: Mr Speaker, we have been pretty liberal in allowing Mr Berry extra time so he can relate his comments to the Bill at hand. I suggest that relevance comes into it.

MR SPEAKER: Relevance, Mr Berry.

MR BERRY: It is entirely relevant. Mr De Domenico's speech said that at the heart of this amendment lies this Government's commitment to employment. I just want to debunk that claim. That is clearly a phoney claim by a bunch of phoneys. There is no way that this Bill ought to be supported. This Government, in coming up with this proposal, has not put in place a proposal which would provide for more training funds for the future. All we have in front of us with this Bill is a proposal to raid the long service leave funds, which are meant for long service leave for workers, for a short term, and then cut out the training aspect of the long service leave fund from that point forward.

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