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

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 14 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 4953 ..

MR BERRY (continuing):

buying jobs. How does that make you feel? You are paying for jobs that might have happened anyway. Mrs Carnell will say that employment in the ACT has grown by 200. That is the same number as the population has grown by. Funny that! Unemployment has grown. Is that good too?

Mrs Carnell: No, that is not good.

MR BERRY: That is not good. Mrs Carnell recognises that 14,500 people unemployed is not good. Why did you not say that in question time and say how you failed the people of the ACT? Although you can boast about financial management because some conservative estimates of revenue have come home and demonstrated a nice neat picture in the lead-up to the election, you cannot boast about what you have done out there in the economy. Look at the empty shops. She does not see the empty shops; she just drives past them. Look at the buildings that are going to be knocked over because of the activities of you and your Liberal colleagues in the ACT. Think about the same percentage of people who were cut from your work force as were cut from John Howard's work force. Think about the savage impact that that has had on the ACT economy. Think about the small businesses that are having trouble because of your combined activities. Do not come in here boasting about a better financial result unless you can boast about other factors in the economy as well, the most important of which is the unemployment rate. That is why Labor has put forward a plan. We have ideas about how to deal with unemployment. Those ideas will culminate in a better ACT. Unquestionably, we are the only party in this place with any ideas in relation to unemployment. Your performance has been dismal. For six months unemployment has been rising in the ACT. Who has been the only party which has been drawing attention to these matters in the ACT? The Labor Party are the only people who have been concerned about the unemployed out there. The Michael Moore party has been almost silent. The Osborne party, a party for a moment, has been almost silent.

Mr Moore: How are you going to raise the money? I have told you how I will do it.

MR BERRY: Sorry, Michael, you have been silent. I am sorry that you feel sorry about saying nothing about the jobless. It is too late now. You have not done the work. While you have been worrying about other issues, this horse and cart has bolted. Mrs Carnell has led this Government, this community and this Assembly down a path of shame. Here we are in a situation where never before have we had such high numbers of unemployed.

Mrs Carnell: And such high numbers of employed.

MR BERRY: But look at the percentage, Mrs Carnell - 8.5 per cent. It tells you the truth. It is more than the national average. It is of your creation. You have no answers. For the last six months, despite all the thrashing around that we have seen from you, all the dancing around in front of the cameras, it has been rising - for six months in a row. Explain to me how you can be shameless when you have such facts in front of you - six months in a row of rising unemployment and 2,800 more people unemployed than when you came to office. They are all numbers that stack up against you. These numbers, with the help of some conservative budgeting on revenues, make a nice neat little package that would make a Treasurer feel good, but only a Treasurer who

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