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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1996 Week 12 Hansard (21 November) . . Page.. 4074 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

to save money. We have to live within our means if we are to avoid borrowings and do all the other things that I am sure everybody, except maybe the Greens, believes that we should do. Mr Speaker, this is a budget about jobs, but it is not about jobs in the public sector. It is a budget that stimulates jobs in the private sector.

Mr Whitecross: No, it does not.

MRS CARNELL: That was the whole basis of this budget. Mr Whitecross again says, "No, it does not". How does he know? The interesting thing is that it does appear that since we brought down the budget the unemployment figures have stabilised and are starting to edge up a bit. That is on the Bureau of Statistics figures.

Mr Whitecross: Unemployment is edging upwards, did you say?

MRS CARNELL: No. I said "the employment figures".

Mr Whitecross: That is not what you said. You said that unemployment is edging upwards.

MRS CARNELL: Unemployment figures appear to have stabilised, and it appears that employment is starting to edge up a bit. It is certainly too early to suggest that the tide has turned, but in the last three months since we brought down the budget the unemployment rate has stopped going up. If you are looking at any indications that this budget has made a difference to small business, if we did not have an Opposition that wanted to talk the economy down the whole time, you could say that this looks like it just might have made a difference. Retail sales are up significantly. In fact, retail sales are at a higher rate than the national average.

Mr Berry: It is Christmas.

MRS CARNELL: I am sorry; they are higher than the national average. In fact, I think they were close to double the national average in the last quarter. There are indications that things are turning around. That would tend to indicate that this budget has stimulated small business; that it has stopped the job losses that we were seeing in the months prior to this budget being brought down. Certainly, those opposite do not want to accept that, but the statistics would indicate that it is true. The statistics that we have to work on suggest that the economy has bottomed; that it is starting to edge up. People are starting to spend money in the retail area. Home approvals are up, and I think they have been up for the last three months. Is that right, Mr De Domenico?

Mr De Domenico: That is right.

MRS CARNELL: All of that starts to indicate that all of this strategy is working. Those opposite want to say, "No, it is not working. It cannot possibly work". Yet everything - all of the information that we have and all of the indicators that we have at the moment - is starting to indicate that people are willing to invest, people are starting to buy homes, people are spending retail dollars, and it appears that the unemployment figures have bottomed and maybe there is a small growth in employment. To me, that sounds like a pretty good effort in the current economic climate.

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