Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 4 Hansard (7 May) . . Page.. 1051 ..

MS McRAE: My question without notice is to Mrs Carnell in her capacity as Chief Minister. Chief Minister, can you explain why your budget papers predict growth in employment of 0.25 per cent when Access Economics in its Budget Monitor predicts a fall in employment of 0.5 per cent? Can you confirm that your predictions about employment growth are based on the ability of Canberra-based firms to capitalise on outsourcing opportunities from the restructuring of Commonwealth Government activities? Is it not true that you are perpetuating the myth that it is okay for the Federal Government to outsource jobs to the private sector, resulting in substantial job losses in the public sector in the ACT?

MRS CARNELL: I can comment, and I have commented once or twice in this place, about Federal Government approaches to downsizing and so on. I will yet again say that we do not support the approach the Federal Government has taken in the area of downsizing. With regard to outsourcing, if the Federal Government goes about outsourcing in a way that gives our local companies a fair go in this area, we certainly will support that approach. If they do not, we will not. It is that simple.

With regard to employment growth of 0.25 per cent, it is a very low figure. This is not exactly a figure that people should think is very optimistic, but we believe that that is possible and, on our modelling, we believe that it is achievable. When you look at the seven months since October last year, we have had a growth in employment in that timeframe. We are very hopeful that that sort of growth can continue. In fact, if that sort of growth continued we would do significantly better than 0.25 per cent. We believe, looking at all the statistics we have, at the Bureau of Statistics information, that 0.25 per cent is achievable, looking at the last six months, looking at the growth that has been achieved in that period, looking at the sorts of policies we have on the table and the companies we are currently talking to, and there are a quite significant number that are looking at either expanding or relocating to Canberra.

We are certainly very hopeful that a large number of ACT-based businesses will pick up outsourcing contracts from the Federal Government, and we have been very proactive in that area. We have been working with local IT companies and local companies generally to help them form strategic partnerships with larger companies in the same sorts of areas, to ensure that there will be a flow-on effect from Commonwealth Government outsourcing. We have a number of committees and so on that have facilitated that. The ACT Supplier Development Committee is a group of private sector people and ACT public servants who are working together to ensure that our local private sector picks up as much of the business as possible. We believe that it is possible. I have to say that 0.25 per cent is a fairly low figure but one that I am sure is possible if we all work hard and we get a little bit of a positive approach. We will all be waiting for Mr Whitecross's blueprint tomorrow of what he is going to do for jobs and employment.

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . .