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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 3 Hansard (9 March) . . Page.. 758 ..

MS CARNELL: This is the lowest rate of unemployment for almost a decade. That rate compares very favourably with two others. First, it compares well with the national rate of 6.8 per cent. Our rate is much better than the national rate, Mr Speaker. Second, it compares well with the unemployment rate that we inherited from those opposite when we came to government.

Mr Berry: And you inherited an economy.

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, what was it then? It was 7.1 per cent, Mr Speaker.

Mr Berry: What a joke, it was lower than the national rate.

MS CARNELL: It was 7.1 per cent when we came to government; it is 5.3 per cent now, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Silence!

Mr Moore: On a point of order, Mr Speaker: I refer you to standing order 61.

Mr Wood: Was it lower than the national average?

Mr Hird: I am listening to this; this is important stuff.

MR SPEAKER: Silence!

MS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, in February 400 new jobs were created, all of them full time. This increase took our total employment in the ACT to 166,000, the highest level ever recorded. In the last year, Mr Speaker, the ACT has seen 9,100 new jobs created at a growth rate of almost 6 per cent, the highest in the nation. Not the average, Mr Speaker, as those opposite would like to say, not in line with other States or in line with the national average, but the highest in the nation.

And since we came to government in March 1995, a total of 13,200 new jobs have been created, despite the loss of 7,000 Commonwealth public servants during that time. By way of comparison, Mr Speaker, when Labor was in office between June 1991 and March 1995, 8,000 new jobs were created. So compare that: 8,000 versus 13,200. Under this Government, more than 13,000 have been created in just five years.

On an equally positive note, the number of unemployed Canberrans fell by 200 in February to just 9,200. In the last year the total number of unemployed has fallen by 9 per cent. In the last five years it has dropped by a staggering 22 per cent. In other words, on top of the jobs growth of more than 13,000 positions in the past five years, we also have 2,600 fewer unemployed than when Labor was last in office.

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