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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1999 Week 1 Hansard (16 February) . . Page.. 144 ..

MS CARNELL: Sorry, I was not looking. In the 12-month period prior to the September quarter, the ACT economy grew by a massive 6.6 per cent, second only to the Northern Territory and well above the national increase of 4.2 per cent. This economic growth shows not only that consumer and business confidence in Canberra is high but also that our economy is still very well insulated from the Asian economic crisis.

It is very interesting thinking back to the last budget, because Mr Quinlan suggested that our economic growth figures were far too optimistic. It appears that, unfortunately, Mr Quinlan really does not understand the difference between a shrinking economy and an economy growing faster than that of any other part of Australia. On the first count, a shrinking economy, it appears that Mr Berry got it wrong, and not just a little bit wrong. Here is the difference between a shrinking economy and an economy growing faster than that of any other State or Territory.

Let us have a look at the second claim, the employment claim. Remember that back in December Mr Berry stated that employment prospects for Canberrans were set to decline in the future. Mr Berry, the prophet of doom, it appears, was wrong again. The ACT currently has the lowest trend unemployment rate for more than eight years, at 5.8 per cent. You would have to go back to October 1990 to find an equivalent figure. As well, according to the Bureau of Statistics, the total number of unemployed is just 9,800, the lowest figure since May 1991. Between January 1997 and January this year, a total of 3,700 new jobs have been created in Canberra. Before Mr Berry says, "But they are all casual and part time", let me state that of those 3,700 jobs 2,800 were full-time positions. That is against a background of 9,000 Commonwealth Public Service jobs being lost over the same period. The ACT has managed to absorb those losses and create an extra 3,700 jobs. As well, the ANZ Bank, which measures job advertisements, has found that the average number of job ads in Canberra has been steadily increasing in trend terms for the past 18 months. Indeed, in the last year the average number of ads has jumped by more than 13 per cent, and by a massive 35 per cent over the past two years. So on the employment front it appears that Mr Berry has got it totally wrong again.

Shall we have a look at the third claim, falling business confidence? Earlier this month the ACT and Region Chamber of Commerce and Industry released its latest business expectations survey. This survey showed that small businesses had performed very well in most areas, including general business conditions, sales revenue, profits and employment. These businesses were predicting a strong start to 1999. But, if Mr Berry does not like the Chamber of Commerce, how about we look at the Yellow Pages small business index? It also found that Canberra businesses were extremely positive about their prospects for the coming year.

It appears that on all three items Mr Berry got it wrong. That means three out of three. It is a bit like health budget blow-outs. Mr Berry got four out of four. He is still keeping up the effort - three out of three wrong. Mr Speaker, I want to remind members of the Assembly about something Mr Berry said on 10 December last year in one of his media releases.

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