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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2001 Week 2 Hansard (1 March) . . Page.. 476 ..

Mr Corbell: Love to, Mr Speaker.

MR SPEAKER: Then be quiet. Go and take a walk or something.

MR HUMPHRIES: Mr Speaker, those figures relate to the whole of that period. At the beginning of that period growth was down. You read it for yourself, Mr Quinlan. It relates to the whole of that period-not just the first part of it but the whole period. The fact is, as you well know, in the last three or four years growth in the ACT has picked up dramatically.

Mr Quinlan: Due to what?

MR HUMPHRIES: Due to a range of factors, including the policies of this government to create jobs and stimulate economic growth in this territory. Our effort in that respect has been enormous. We have created something like 17,000 jobs in this territory-that is net of the 7,000 or so that have been contracted by the Commonwealth government. Yes, growth was slow in the early stages of the Carnell government, but we have turned that around. I am proud of that fact, and the government has worked hard to achieve that. It is no accident. If Mr Quinlan does not like that fact, he can take it up with the Grants Commission but I think the achievements stand for themselves. If he wants to see what the current picture is in the ACT, he should look at the figures published in the last budget statement. That tells you what the picture is today.

MR QUINLAN: I have a supplementary question. Drawing a line through state final demand figures would show that in fact, in the recent years that you refer to, it is public sector expenditure in the ACT that has been the driving force behind some recent economic improvement, something even conceded in a briefing that you gave the Select Committee on Budget Parameters. Do you concede that to a large extent the following events, issues and projects have had a lot to do with better economic times in the ACT: expenditure on the Y2K threat; the introduction of the GST and the considerable growth in the Australian Taxation Office; the construction of the National Museum, all under public funds; and, of course, the generally buoyant Australian economy, which we seem to be lagging behind but nevertheless being pulled along somewhat?

MR HUMPHRIES: Of course they have had a bearing on all of those things, and of course the national economy has been helpful to the ACT. But you cannot be pulled along by the national economy if you are actually out in front of it, which is what the ACT is. We have higher growth in the ACT than the national average, we have lower unemployment than the national average, and quite substantially so in both cases. Are you saying that the ACT's lowest unemployment rate of the whole nation is somehow created by the fact that the rest of the nation is doing very well? If that is the case, why are not they enjoying a lower unemployment rate than we are?

The challenge I throw back to Mr Quinlan is this: if I concede that these things have had a lot to do with the buoyant state of the ACT economy-and of course they have had something to do with it-are you going to concede, whenever this year that there is a federal election going on and your party is bashing the hell out of the federal government, that its decision about the GST, its decision about a national museum in this

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