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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 7 Hansard (24 June) . . Page.. 1958 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

CanDeliver is about keeping those jobs in Canberra and creating new jobs, Mr Speaker. It is about putting the strengths of the ACT Government, including our AAA credit rating, behind local businesses in order to give them a chance of winning Commonwealth outsourcing work.

Mr Speaker, I am happy to inform members that this innovative job creation approach has met with overwhelming support from small- and medium-sized business in Canberra. It is not hard to see why. They understand that, while they would have difficulty in even bidding for a share of Commonwealth outsourcing work on their own, an initiative such as CanDeliver may give them a real chance of winning new business. It came as some surprise, then, Mr Speaker, when we heard on a news bulletin on a local radio station the Deputy Leader of the Opposition, Mr Berry - or shall we call him "Mr Business" - condemning the CanDeliver initiative.

Mr Berry: The taxpayers have to take the risk.

MRS CARNELL: There we are; Mr Berry is doing it again. He thinks it is a dreadful idea. Mr Speaker, the radio bulletin said that a plan to keep outsourced jobs in Canberra had come under fire by the Opposition. Shock, horror! Fancy planning to keep outsourced jobs here in Canberra, Mr Speaker! That was the way the story ran. It went on to quote Mr Berry as saying that businesses would take the profits and that the plan was full of holes. Again, shock, horror, Mr Speaker! In other words, we have the Labor Party saying, "Tough luck, small business".

Mr Berry: Taxpayers put up the risk capital; that is the issue.

MRS CARNELL: There you are; Mr Berry is still saying it - "Risk capital; shock, horror!". Mr Speaker, shock, horror, if this Government is about keeping outsourced jobs here in the Territory. What the Labor Party was basically saying was, "We do not think you deserve any assistance, small business". Mr Berry is saying it again: "We do not think you deserve any assistance whatsoever in bidding for Commonwealth outsourcing". In fact, we have members of the Labor Party effectively saying that they do not care if small- to medium-sized local businesses are frozen out of this process and jobs are lost as a result. Mr Speaker, this is the same Labor Party whose leader, Mr Whitecross, claimed just over a week ago that it would look after local business. What absolute hypocrisy, when their response to a plan that would actually help local businesses is to shoot it down, without even proper consideration.

The thing that really seems to offend Mr Berry about the CanDeliver approach is that businesses might profit. I am sure that was the bet. Then he said, "Shock, horror! Businesses might take the profits". Mr Speaker, once again we see the Labor Party's inability to understand how jobs are actually created. If a business is profitable, then guess what it does. Its business grows and it employs more people, Mr Speaker.

Mr Berry: Mr Speaker, on a point of order: If Mrs Carnell wants to put words in our mouths, I wish she would use the words that we would use ourselves.

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

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