Page 4094 - Week 13 - Wednesday, 26 November 2014
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
The network is already bringing together our local businesses with major institutions including ANU, NICTA, CSIRO, University of Canberra, and UNSW Canberra, which have all signed on as foundation members and have agreed to contribute $50,000 per annum per member to the network. It is a first for Australia. Already other jurisdictions are asking how we persuaded five nationally and internationally significant institutions to commit to the growth of the innovation ecosystem in the ACT.
Canberra continues to be one of the most small business friendly cities in Australia. We are doing all we can to stimulate our economy, to build confidence and to seek new investment in the ACT economy.
MR RATTENBURY (Molonglo) (4.20): I thank Ms Porter for raising this issue today. The Greens have confidence in the underlying strength of the ACT economy and the strong prospects for a sustainable and prosperous city into the future. We are, however, seriously concerned about the impact of the federal government’s cuts to the federal public service. The number and proportion of jobs that have already been and are still being cut in the ACT are significant. The impacts are already starting to show. Not only is the ACT losing excellent people who contributed daily to the work of the federal government, but also Canberra, being the nation’s capital and the home for these tens of thousands of public servants, has a services and hospitality sector that relies heavily on these public servants to spend their incomes.
The Canberra Times reported just last week that the federal government public service job cuts reached a rate of almost one in 11 Canberra positions last financial year. ABS employment data show the commonwealth workforce shrank by 1.7 per cent during 2013-14. The figures showed 7,200 federal job losses in the ACT over the year—a huge blow to this city’s economy. I might note that Mr Smyth made some comments earlier about the Greens not acknowledging that this has been happening on both sides of politics. I think I can say that, going to the federal election, my colleague Simon Sheikh very clearly made the case that we were criticising cuts across the public sector by both sides of politics. So I reject that accusation.
Meanwhile, the ACT government’s public service continued a five-year trend of growth. The ACT public service had 20,551 employees in June this year, up more than 2,600 from June 2010 levels. Sadly, the ACT was the only state or territory to record a jump in the latest unemployment numbers released this month, reaching levels not seen since July 2001. The ABS reported that the territory had a 5.4 per cent unemployment rate in October, the highest in 13 years.
In October, the ACT lost its status as the jurisdiction with the lowest unemployment rate in the country. And it is broader than that. The impacts extend right into the real estate sector and the building and construction industries; we see that flow-on happening from cuts to the federal public sector. In addition, the federal government’s cuts to scientific research organisations such as CSIRO and to university funding are also having short-term economic impacts. Perhaps more significantly in the medium to longer term, these cuts are impacting on the industries of the future.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video