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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (7 May) . . Page.. 1043 ..

Mr Whitecross: Why do you not just answer the question I did ask?

MRS CARNELL: I am answering. You were indicating that the jobs budget we brought down last year somehow has not worked. When we brought down the budget last year, the unemployment rate was 8.6 per cent; now it is 7.4 per cent. That shows the jobs budget that has not worked! The number of jobs in the community has gone up significantly, the number of people unemployed in the community has gone down significantly, at a time when the Federal Government is downsizing significantly as well. I think that shows that the approach we took last year has worked, and is working, under enormously difficult circumstances; there is no doubt about that. The fact that the unemployment rate has tracked down and the employment rate has tracked up indicates good things for Canberra, not bad things, as they say.

MR WHITECROSS: I thank Mrs Carnell for her confirmation that the $1m for youth traineeships in the Public Service has disappeared.

Mrs Carnell: No.

MR WHITECROSS: You did not say they were there, so they must have disappeared. I ask a supplementary question. Chief Minister, is it not the case that these youth traineeship schemes which have disappeared from your budget actively created real jobs for young people in the ACT Public Service, unlike your new scheme, which spreads the money so thinly that you are relying on employers being inspired to create a job by your bribe of, admittedly, $1,000 per person?

MRS CARNELL: Poor old Mr Whitecross! It is quite sad. In my answer I said that the money we made available last year is on top of the money we will make available this year. It is quite simple. Read my lips: The money from last year is being spent and the money from this year is being spent as well. So we are not talking about - - -

Mr Berry: Aren't we smart today! Have you been on the smart pills?

Mr Whitecross: No.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, it is very hard for me to yell today.

MR SPEAKER: Order! The Chief Minister is answering a supplementary question from the Leader of the Opposition. I do not think it helps if the Opposition continually interjects.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, Mr Whitecross said that I had not answered the question. He asked whether the money we spent last year on employment programs was being spent again this year. The answer is yes, it is. It is on top of the extra $4.5m we are spending this year - new money, Mr Speaker. Mr Whitecross shows an enormous lack of understanding of traineeships. He could have looked at the budget papers and he would have seen that the approach we are taking with the Youth500 scheme - 500 new traineeships in the ACT - is in partnership with the CES, the Federal Government and the private sector. The ACT Government will put in $1,000 per trainee; the Federal Government will put in $3,100, I think it is. There is a training component on top of that,

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