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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (28 August) . . Page.. 2626 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

Mr Speaker, by any measure, that is encouraging news for Canberra's small business community and for our economy as a whole. Put simply, the survey finds that there has been a strong rebound in sales growth and profitability compared with early 1997, and business operators expect that this will continue to improve in coming months. Employment and investment growth also remain reasonably positive indicators, and that is another good sign for the ACT. The results of this Yellow Pages survey are backed up by other indicators which show that the Territory appears to be slowly but surely gaining ground once again. Mr Speaker, perhaps the most telling indicator to emerge from these figures is the expectation from 38 per cent of the small businesses surveyed in Canberra that the economy will improve during the next 12 months. No-one is suggesting that the Territory is out of the woods yet, but the signs of a sustained recovery are starting to show through.

Mr Speaker, the Labor Party has consistently argued that this Government is responsible for the downturn in the economy; so, using their argument, the reverse must also be true, one would assume, and now that there is an improvement in the economy this Government must also be responsible for it. But I do not know that we will hear Mr Corbell or Mr Berry telling this Assembly that there have been 7,300 new jobs created in Canberra since last November. I do not think you will hear Mr Corbell or Mr Berry telling us that there are now - - -

Mr Berry: Yes, but that many were lost in the previous 12 months.

MR SPEAKER: Order!

MRS CARNELL: Mr Berry, I am very happy to tell you about this. There are now 1,800 fewer unemployed people in Canberra compared with nine months ago. Mr Speaker, that is an incredible turnaround - 7,300 new jobs, most of them full-time jobs, since last November, and 1,800 fewer people unemployed over that same nine months. But we hear nothing from those opposite, Mr Speaker. What you will be hearing about this Government is our determination to keep this city moving, to continue to create jobs, to help small businesses grow and to expand those firms.

I would have assumed that everyone in this Assembly, obviously with the notable exception of the Labor Party, knows that the No. 1 issue in this city is jobs. To achieve those jobs we have to have plans for the future. We have to be right behind such things as Olympic soccer, Kingston foreshore developments, and business incentive schemes - all of those sorts of issues that those opposite have been negative about. Mr Speaker, I wonder how long it is going to take the Opposition to work it out. They have not been able to do it for the last 21/2 years. Without plans for the future, without positive moves in this Assembly to create jobs and to give business confidence, it is no wonder they are on that side.

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