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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2000 Week 9 Hansard (7 September) . . Page.. 2988 ..

MR HUMPHRIES: I stand corrected. As far as silencing critics is concerned, I have legislation on the table to reform the law of defamation, and I suspect that Mr Quinlan would like to support the legislation. I am sure he will be able to see that there is a better way of dealing with those issues in the public arena.

I stand by the ACTEW/AGL joint venture, for one very important reason: it is going to both create and retain jobs in this community.

MR HIRD: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister, Mrs Carnell. Can the Chief Minister confirm that the ACT now has not only the lowest unemployment rate in Australia but the lowest since before self-government.

MS CARNELL: Thank you very much, Mr Hird, for the question. The ACT does have the lowest unemployment rate for 14 years. What is it? Is it 5.2 per cent? No. Is it 5 per cent? No. Is it 4.9 per cent? No. Is it 4.8 per cent? No. It is 4.6 per cent. Our unemployment rate is the lowest since 1986, certainly the lowest since self-government, and the lowest in Australia. The ACT is the only state or territory under 5 per cent.

Mr Quinlan: We always had the lowest in Australia.

MS CARNELL: No, we did not. The Northern Territory was always lower than us. The Northern Territory is not lower than us now. In fact, we are now significantly lower than everybody else. In August 1,100 more Canberrans found work, 400 fewer Canberrans were identified as unemployed, and the participation rate rose, while the ABS found that the ACT's population continued to grow strongly, with the working age population aged 15 and over increasing by 300 last month and 5,800 last year. We see an all-time record number of jobs and the lowest unemployment rate since 1986. We see an extra 7,700 new jobs created in the past year. The 4.6 per cent unemployment rate now compares with an unemployment rate of 7.1 per cent when we came to government.

Those opposite have regularly said that the ACT scenario is good only because we are riding on the shirt tails of the rest of Australia. How do those opposite justify that assertion when the ACT's employment growth is not the same as that in New South Wales or the rest of Australia but significantly higher? How do those opposite justify that assertion when ACT retail sales growth over the last 12 months has been by far the largest in Australia, at 12 per cent? How do those opposite justify saying that it is all to do with what is happening in other states when the ANZ job statistics released this week show that the growth in the ACT was significantly higher than in New South Wales or any other state? According to Yellow Pages, business confidence in the ACT increased in the last quarter.

Mr Quinlan made a comment about the ATO. He has done that before. If Mr Quinlan would like to check with the ATO, they will tell him that they have fewer employees now than they had in 1996, not more.

MR SPEAKER: Order! Do not provoke the opposition, please.

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