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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 10 Hansard (25 September) . . Page.. 3296 ..

MRS CARNELL (continuing):

New motor vehicle registrations have been up, I think, every month now for about ten months. Retail trading figures have increased consistently over recent months. Does this indicate an economy that is on its knees, as Mr Berry said? Today comes the news that the ACT's gross State product has now increased for two consecutive months.

Mr Berry: But it is still in negative.

MRS CARNELL: It is not. Ha! It is not. It increased in two consecutive months, Mr Speaker, including a rise of 0.4 per cent in the June quarter and 0.2 per cent in the March quarter. On those figures - not our figures, but the gross State product figures - the ACT is in recovery. More importantly, the ACT economy has now emerged from recession, as these figures show. The bottom line, Mr Berry, is that we are no longer in recession. Mr Berry has been saying that it is our fault - - -

Mr Berry: I have seen the figures. For three months in a row, negative growth in trend terms.

MRS CARNELL: Wrong! Sorry, wrong! We have now had two quarters of positive growth, as we have seen from the figures released today.

Mr Berry: Three months. Mention the last three months.

MR SPEAKER: Order! That is enough of interjections.

MRS CARNELL: More importantly, in this last quarter we outperformed New South Wales, we outperformed South Australia, we outperformed Western Australia, and we outperformed Tasmania. That should be regarded by those opposite as good news. They have continually said that the ACT being in recession was our fault. Obviously, if that is the case, the recovery is our fault as well. I agree with that. It shows that ACT Government policies are making a difference.

Mr Speaker, on the employment front, over 120 young people have already been placed through the Youth500 program over the last five weeks or so. What about the 50 new jobs on the private hospital site, Mr Speaker? Mr Berry talked about 10 jobs at John James. There are 50 new jobs building the new private hospital. About an hour ago Mr Humphries and I were out opening the new Gull Petroleum site at Belconnen. They indicated that they planned to employ 25 new workers on their two sites. What about today's comments by Adecco Personnel, a major agency in Canberra, saying that they had noticed a 50 per cent increase in the demand for temps over recent months? What does that say about Mr Berry's 25 jobs in Queanbeyan? Every job matters. I have just spoken about the 6,100 predominantly full-time jobs since last November, 50 jobs on the new private hospital site, 25 on the Gull site, and a 50 per cent increase in demand for temps, and all of this is occurring as a result of our Jobs for Canberra strategy.

I think those opposite should be saying to the Government, "Good work. You have managed to get the ACT economy back on track. You have managed to get the ACT economy back in growth. You have created 6,100 new jobs since last November, and 4,000 jobs since you came to government".

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