Page 146 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 26 February 2014
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We will promote excellence in education by attracting students, researchers and academics to the city and its world-class education institutions by promoting Canberra as a destination of choice for domestic and international students, enhancing productivity through targeted vocational education and training opportunities, continuing to foster high performance and achievement in our schools through implementing the national education reforms, providing Canberrans every chance to learn, and being a city renowned for excellent educational institutions.
We will deliver infrastructure to support future growth by investing in sustainable and adaptable infrastructure, getting value for money by optimising the use of our existing assets and exploring innovative partnerships for future infrastructure, continuing long-term infrastructure planning to support sustained economic growth of the city, and building the capital metro and developing the central land corridor.
Joblessness imposes not just an economic cost on the person and their family; it has an emotional and social cost. Keeping people in work always helps alleviate pressure on community services and charity organisations, and on people seeking help from government. A strong employment base helps create a vibrant city. More people in work means more economic activity—more people spending in our local businesses, using services, visiting restaurants and shops. Meanwhile, joblessness imposes a high social cost—on the person, on their sense of self-worth, their family and their connections to their community.
A full-time job is one of the most dependable pathways out of poverty. The ACT has high participation rates and low unemployment compared to other jurisdictions. However, there are still people in the ACT who are long-term unemployed and find it difficult to access entry-level jobs. Education and training are important for employment outcomes. The targeted assistance strategy from 2012 reports that people with these higher level qualifications have far better employment outcomes and a more positive economic return.
The commonwealth government is responsible for job services, which work with people to match them with jobs, and the ACT government runs many of the support services used by people who are unemployed. Finding ways to coordinate across jurisdictions will continue to improve the services that assist people to find work. The ACT government has trialled a coordinated approach with the home-to-work initiative using commonwealth innovation fund funding that showed the benefits that can be achieved and also demonstrated people’s commitment to finding work.
The Detecting Disadvantage in the ACT report, which uses 2006 census data, shows that the ACT has diverse suburbs, with highly advantaged households in close proximity to highly disadvantaged households. This means that disadvantage that comes with not having a job may not be visible in the ACT and poses service delivery challenges. Understanding the implications of job losses and the implications for members of our community will continue to focus this government’s efforts in developing support measures for members of our community that require assistance.
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