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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1998 Week 4 Hansard (23 June) . . Page.. 828 ..

MS CARNELL (continuing):

because we could not live within our means. They are about modernising the way we deliver services, communicate with our citizens and do business with the world. And they are about providing assistance to the people in our community who most need it.

I will now detail the key initiatives of our budget strategy. Mr Speaker, over the next four years, this Government will once again reduce the general government sector operating loss - from $139m this financial year to $72m in the year 2001. We will achieve this through a combination of expenditure restraint and broadening our revenue base. This will be done incrementally, without using dramatic cost-cutting measures that have been used in the States. It is a task for which we have strong credentials and a task that will also ensure that we maintain our AAA credit rating.

Mr Speaker, tackling the problem of unemployment in the ACT continues to be our top priority. While our employment situation is much brighter than a year ago when I stood here and presented the last budget, there is still a long way to go before we can say that there is no longer a problem. Our long-term goal has been to encourage sustainable employment growth through business development and the diversification of our public sector dominated economy. This year the ACT Government has been forced to rethink its strategies, following the introduction of the new Commonwealth employment network on 1 May. For better or worse, the Job Network has revolutionised the way employment assistance, brokerage and training programs are delivered both here and around Australia.

Mr Speaker, these changes have enormous implications for State and Territory governments, because it will be some months before the full impact of these reforms is assessed. This Government has taken a conscious decision to reprioritise our employment programs to avoid duplication and to target those Canberrans who may slip through the Commonwealth programs. I can announce today, Mr Speaker, that the Government has committed a total of $4.2m to fund new and existing employment programs, in line with our election commitments. Chief among these is the development of the first scheme to actually target joblessness among mature age Canberrans, that is, people 40 and over, sometimes described as the forgotten unemployed. I made a promise during the election campaign to focus on this area, and today I am making good on that promise. We have allocated $700,000 under a new Restart program. Restart will be an integrated program of assistance to older job seekers aimed at helping them get back into work through a combination of employer incentive payments, skills training and mentor support.

Mr Speaker, the Government will significantly expand resources for its indigenous employment assistance program, to $80,000, while an extra $100,000 will be injected into our very successful open access centres. The problem of youth unemployment has not been overlooked. The successful Youth SelfStart program has been doubled to $80,000, while a new program costing $80,000 will provide assistance to ex-remandees and ex-detainees at the Quamby centre. As well, we have further expanded our graduate administrative assistants scheme by 20 per cent, which will result in approximately 36 new graduates being taken on across the Public Service this year. Finally, in line with our election promise, we have abolished the central redundancy fund, ending a program that began back in 1992 under Labor.

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