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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4001 ..

Mr De Domenico: You wish.

MR BERRY: It is untrue. She says "not one dollar", and you say in your letter that $75,000 has already been allocated. Who is right here, Mrs Carnell or you? You cannot both be right.

We go on further through Mrs Carnell's speech. We have already heard her claim in respect of certain officers of the CFMEU and how that has been debunked. Mrs Carnell talked about 150 jobs for young Canberrans. I bet you squirmed when you heard that - "A bit wide of the mark, boss". In your own letter, you refer to 25 first year apprentices and an additional 25 at-risk apprentices. It is not 150 jobs; it is only 25 jobs. (Quorum formed) We have a situation where Mrs Carnell's claim has shrunk from 150 jobs for young Canberrans to 25. There are too many pieces of very shaky information upon which people could support this legislation.

As I said at the outset, once you have made the decision you cannot reverse it. The money has gone; you cannot get it back. It is a serious situation to make a judgment about $300,000 going to a business which is, certainly on its own records, quite shaky - a $300,000 deficit. I have tabled their own document in this place, and everybody has a copy of it. I ask them to make sure that they have another look at it. I heard Mr Osborne say that he was not keen on other apprentices being moved into this fund. Mr Evans has basically said to Mr Osborne, "They are going to be".

Mr De Domenico: No, he has not said that at all. Read the letter.

MR BERRY: I will read it:

Let me categorically state that it is MBA Group Training's intention that those apprentices going into the proposed Skills Centre be new apprentices or apprentices who are currently unemployed.

Then we get to the situation of how many apprentices are going to be available. We know, for example, that two skills centres are going to be operating in 1997, and CITEA and MBA Group Training's apprenticeship scheme will be involved in that. There will be 50 apprentices between those two. Where are these jobs going to come from? Where are they going to magically emerge from?

Mrs Carnell: Why do you not just give it a go?

Mr De Domenico: Give 70 new people a chance to get a job, Wayne. Go on. Vote for this Bill. Let us see what you think about unemployment.

MR SPEAKER: Order!

Mrs Carnell: It cannot hurt.

MR BERRY: Mrs Carnell says that it cannot hurt. It can hurt if you are going to give $300,000 of taxpayers' money to an organisation that is clearly not doing too well.

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