Page 1058 - Week 04 - Tuesday, 2 May 2006
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community that you recognise the need to be responsive to the need for more childcare facilities, then as a government the impression is certainly given and should be recognised that value is placed on providing Canberra families with access to more childcare facilities.
Most people would have read in the Canberra Times this morning about Mr Corbell’s fairly feeble attempt, it has to be said, all of a sudden to rush out there and release land. Let us face it. The minister is releasing land in Yarralumla, which is really not good enough, because it will merely replace the number of places lost by the forced closure of the Teddy Bears Child Care Centre. I think Mrs Dunne is going to speak more on this issue later.
Mr Gentleman is quite right in the assertion that there will be impacts on employment as a result of the changes to the legislation. Families face a number of pressures to balance the need to juggle a career, and in a lot of cases that will see both parents working to pay the bills. But we must not overlook the fact that the ACT government can provide an environment that aids in relieving the associated pressures in the workplace. Childcare is just one of those pressures.
I remind the ACT Labor Party that the most important thing to keep in mind is that the Howard government’s WorkChoices package is part of a broader commitment to keep the Australian economy strong. This contrasts with an inability by federal Labor to release any comprehensive policy. To be frank, after nine years in opposition the Australian people still do not know what Kim Beazley and Labor stand for.
At the ACT level, only time will tell as to how the new industrial relations laws will impact upon what are quite positive working conditions currently in the ACT. However, Mr Gentleman does want to pluck little cases out one by one, and it is strange at this point because I have to say the government always prides itself on not talking about individual cases. So it is interesting here that we pick people out and make some big case out of them. Yet when it comes to things like pubic housing or disability services or family services, we do not talk about individual cases.
It must be a hard pill for ACT Labor to swallow to watch the Australian economy continue to grow and prosper with all Australians being given greater access to improved job prospects not seen in a number of decades. It must also be difficult to watch John Howard continue to maintain a steady hand on the wheel and not sway from a distinct position in relation to this topic.
The federal Minister for Employment and Workplace Relations has made it clear that the intention of introducing the WorkChoices package is to give more Australians the chance of a job. In fact, this package appears to be built upon the fact that since the federal coalition came into power over a decade ago, it has created an economic and social environment that produced a record 1.7 million new jobs, which in turn saw Australia’s unemployment rate reduce remarkably, reaching a 30 year low.
The facts are before us. They cannot be denied. I guess it is imperative to note here that the Chief Minster would be happy with this kind of prosperous economic period, and I am glad to see him sitting in the chamber. Locally we have the lowest levels of
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