Page 193 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 26 February 2014
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It is well and truly on the record that the then shadow treasurer, now the Treasurer, on numerous occasions made statements to the effect that the federal coalition will abolish up to 12,000 public service jobs if elected. We now believe this figure is forecast to be well above this—up to 17,000 jobs.
Every unemployed person is obviously deeply affected and, of course, it has a devastating impact on families. Sometimes it can have a devastating effect on the neighbourhood and of course it has a similar effect on the economy of the ACT and region. But it is not all doom and gloom. Like the Treasurer said yesterday during question time and again today, this government will do everything in its power to protect jobs in the ACT. It will do what it can to facilitate employment both as an employer and as a driver of economic growth.
The Treasurer has given us many examples of success in doing so thus far. As we saw in the 2013-14 ACT budget, a lot of focus was placed on building a stronger economy through the creation of jobs and opportunity of fairness for all Canberrans. The government is achieving this through investment in major infrastructure programs by its support of innovation and research and in private sector and the growing education sector.
In my electorate of Ginninderra, for example, the government funded several such projects that have created and continued to sustain both direct and indirect jobs. Minister Corbell highlighted earlier last year the positive impact of the emergency services station upgrades and relocation project. That was evident with the establishment of the new west Belconnen joint ambulance and fire rescue station which benefited from the project and created jobs during the construction phase. Even though it was completed in October last year, this facility continues to generate employment post completion. I await news on the progress of the proposed Aranda facility.
Health care and social services is the third largest industry in the ACT, employing nearly 20,000 people. That is why the building of the University of Canberra public hospital is very important to the people of the ACT and is keenly awaited by the people of Ginninderra, as we were talking about before. As members are aware, last year the government invested $8.3 million to complete planning and forward design of the new hospital, which, as you all know, when completed will mean an extra 200 beds plus aged care, mental health and subacute services. This means more economic opportunity in the local economy.
The completed project has the potential of promoting excellence in education and attracting more students and researchers and academics to the city and our world-class educational institutions such as the University of Canberra and the Bruce CIT campus. We heard on the ABC news last night that our tertiary institutions are predicting continued growth in enrolments, particularly students from overseas but also domestic growth.
As I stated earlier, the ACT government cannot stop the commonwealth cuts, but it can and will play a role in ensuring that we emerge out of this period as soon as possible and in a stronger position.
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