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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2456 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

the CIT in promoting and providing the agreed courses as part of the Unisys People approach. Unisys People is currently being established through a joint venture between Unisys Australia and Quasar Professionals, a firm specialising in contract and permanent information technology recruitment services. Five courses have been conducted to date. As at June this year, 11 people had undertaken the technical course. Four are registered with Unisys People as accredited millennium consultants. CIT report that interest in attending courses being marketed in Sydney, Melbourne and Canberra has been very strong. More courses will be undertaken in September, and further courses in November. Mr Corbell might be interested to know - - -

MR SPEAKER: Mr Corbell might like to listen.

Mr Corbell: I am listening, Mr Speaker.

MRS CARNELL: No; he is not interested at all, Mr Speaker. He might be interested to know that, all around Australia now, the millennium problem that those opposite indicated was absolute rubbish - if you remember, Mr Speaker, it did not exist - is now on every government's agenda; governments right around Australia are requiring, as are private sector companies, programs and proposals to be in place in the very near future.

I believe very strongly, Mr Speaker, that this program not only will step up significantly from here but also will bring back the things that matter for Canberra; that is, IT jobs, being seen as a centre of information technology and R and D. They do not want to know, Mr Speaker. There were 7,300 new jobs, nine consecutive months of job growth, and more jobs now than when we came to power, even with Commonwealth Government downsizing. Fujitsu is setting up its Asia-Pacific help desk recorders, with 900 full-time equivalent jobs. For all of those things, those opposite should be saying, "Good work, Government", instead of the approach that those opposite have taken.

MR SPEAKER: Do you have a supplementary question, Mr Corbell?

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, I am pleased that four people have been accredited.

MR SPEAKER: Ask your supplementary question, Mr Corbell, with no preamble.

MR CORBELL: We still do not know how many people have got jobs. My supplementary question, Mr Speaker, is this: Chief Minister, since the majority of the training courses which have been run so far for this project have been in Melbourne and Sydney, not Canberra, can you inform the Assembly exactly how many of the jobs created so far - and we are still waiting for that figure, by the way - have been produced in Sydney and Melbourne, rather than Canberra?

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, as I said, CIT are actually involved in providing these courses. I would have thought that sort of outsourcing was something that those opposite would have been very keen on. We always made it clear that these jobs would not be with government.

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