Page 2172 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 15 August 2006
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The budget also announced the establishment of the Office of Regulatory Services, which will be responsible for a broad range of business, occupational and consumer regulation. Functions to be incorporated into the office include the Office for Fair Trading, the Registrar-General’s Office, ACT WorkCover, the licensing and regulatory functions of the Independent Competition and Regulatory Commission, the ICRC, and approvals and administration of a range of business activities associated with the use of public land.
It is expected that the new office will greatly reduce the amount of time businesses need to be spending dealing with government red tape, and I am sure that this will be welcome to Canberra businesses. As I said when I began my remarks, this government is a visionary one, one that has paved the way for a sustainable future in Canberra, one that is committed to ensuring we have a strong economy to take us into the future and one that ensures that we can continue to deliver the quality of services Canberrans have come to expect and to enjoy under the Stanhope government—a government of which I am proud to be a member.
MR MULCAHY (Molonglo) (4.32): I must say that I recall reading once that, because of a dispute with Winston Churchill, a newspaper in Scotland—I think it was in Aberdeen—managed to omit his name from any article during the entirety of the Second World War. That was quite an interesting accomplishment. That story prompted me to reply. I listened to Ms Porter’s dissertation about the ACT economy. Unless I am misrepresenting her, I do not think I heard any reference to the Howard government as having any role or relevance. There was a brief mention of the words “commonwealth government” in relation to a particular grant but generally there was a very substantial omission in terms of the commonwealth playing any role.
I have noticed in recent weeks that the Chief Minister has been pumping out these statements, all of which he weaved into a reply earlier today, that claim great credit for low levels of unemployment, high levels of work force participation, investment in construction, business migration and all sorts of things. Every time I read them, I keep looking for some credit being given to the biggest employer in town and the one that is driving this national economy through their sensible policies but, surprisingly, there is never ever a mention. I hope I can put a little bit of that on the record today so that those obvious oversights can be remedied.
Let us look at—and I have looked at them—some of the recent comments that have been made on the role of the national government and its impact on our economy. The latest figures that were released at the end of July by Dr Stone, who is the Minister for Workforce Participation, indicated that the number of people receiving unemployment benefits fell nationally by 18,983, 3.3 per cent, between June 2005 and June 2006. The minister said:
… the drop in unemployment benefit recipients reflected the strong performance of providers of Australian Government employment services, which help people to move from welfare into work.
The ACT recorded substantial improvements in this area as well. But the minister pointed out:
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