Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .

Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 07 Hansard (Wednesday, 30 June 2004) . . Page.. 3022 ..

to people in the indigenous community or whether it is looking at early school leavers. I did an Assembly inquiry which looked into school leavers. It is well understood that employment prospects are not high at all for people who leave school early. We know that if we work with those groups we have the opportunity to make a big difference in the long run for those individuals and for the community as a whole, which saves taxpayers money because of reducing the need for support payments.

I conclude with the underemployment question, which is often connected with overemployment. This is an issue because, if you seriously tackle overemployment, you can see the problem for the establishment and development of a number of jobs. That has certainly been proven in countries where this question has been seriously tackled. The relationship between underemployment and poverty has to be stressed as a major concern in our community. I move the amendment circulated in my name:

Add “but expresses concern at the lack of a comprehensive and targeted employment strategy which addresses long-term unemployment, under-employment and the needs of groups in our community who are particularly disadvantaged in the labour market.”

MS DUNDAS (11.25): I will talk to both the substantive motion and to the amendment moved by Ms Tucker. Higher employment growth expectations are of course good news because that means more jobs for the ACT, and we have seen a steady fall in unemployment rates in the territory. However, a closer look at the figures put forward in the Hudson Report on employment expectations reveals our continuing vulnerability to federal government policy.

Expected employment growth is heavily concentrated in the government and IT sectors. Growth in the IT sector itself is largely dependent on the federal government. If the Howard government decides that there are more votes in moving government jobs elsewhere, our unemployment rate could rapidly soar. As a result not only do we lose core jobs in the public sector but also all the people who are providing IT support and additional resources find themselves without work.

We need a more diverse industry base in the territory so that we are not so vulnerable to federal government policy. The ACT government needs to look beyond our borders to help local businesses reach their potential. It would be very useful if BusinessACT helped and supported local businesses to form consortiums to bid for interstate contracts that are too large or complex for any single Canberra business to take on alone.

The government has failed to develop a scheme to help start-up businesses develop prospectus documents to attract venture capital funding. Instead of exploring the creation of skill building for businesses, the government has taken the lazy option of just throwing money at business start-ups through a venture capital fund in the hope that it will pay off.

It appears that the government has not even made a serious effort to help local businesses tender for ACT government contracts. To increase work to small businesses in the territory, the government plans to introduce a pre-tender process to inform local businesses about major upcoming ACT government contracts. That is laudable, but the process will not guarantee that government contracts are of a size that local businesses

Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . .