Page 15 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 10 February 2015
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equality. This will be in addition to her important roles as Minister for Housing, Minister for Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Affairs, Minister for Community Services, Minister for Multicultural Affairs and Minister for Women.
Before being elected to this place, Yvette worked in the hospitality industry and has been a community organiser for United Voice. Perhaps no-one here has done more to stand up for low income workers in the ACT. Yvette’s passion for making society work in the interests of working people and people on fixed incomes will be a huge asset in her new role.
Labor understands that without leadership from government and the good work of our magnificent community sector, many of the things which make this a great city for the many could leave it a very tough place for the few. We face the toughest external economic environment in decades, and we have much to do simply to support growth and jobs. But jobs and growth alone will not be enough.
This is one of the paradoxes of our prosperity. Especially when the city is experiencing a phase of rapid growth and we are creating relatively high income jobs, we have to be smart and work hard to ensure that middle and low income Canberrans are not locked out of our labour market, our housing market and many other sectors of our economy—especially young people starting out in work and family life, people who work in the private sector and older Canberrans whose long-term incomes are fixed.
Canberra’s economy, our politics and our society should never be only about the well paid or the well placed. I say to all Canberrans: regardless of your gender, your sexuality, your age, the country of your birth or the colour of your skin; whether you are in full health and fully physically able or not; who you share your household with; whether you own your home and where you live—Canberra is your city and it is our community.
We have already started work to renew and refresh government practices with changes I know local business has been seeking for some time.
I want it to be even easier for people to do great things in our city. Access Canberra, our new one-stop shop to cut red tape, which I flagged in my first speech as Chief Minister to the Assembly, has already begun to make life easier for small and large businesses, community groups and individuals needing government permits, approvals and licences.
Over summer, we hosted young entrepreneurs at our CBR innovation business incubator, Entry 29, and we made new announcements on taxi policy and parking systems; new clean energy projects, including working with the growing and innovative Canberra firm Windlab; new details about light rail; and, this morning, new details about a convention centre plan.
There is much more to do, though, Madam Speaker.
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