Page 2020 - Week 07 - Tuesday, 28 May 1991
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Mr Berry wanted to know about youth unemployment. They made much of the fact that in January, which was the peak of youth unemployment because it is the period when people leave school and have not yet settled into jobs or gone back to school, it was 37 per cent. It dropped to 18 per cent in March-April, and at the moment it is 28 per cent. That demonstrates the fact that it fluctuates wildly during the course of the year. It is up one month and down the next. I am not proud of the youth unemployment rate, but you have nothing to be proud about either. What was the youth unemployment rate when you were in government? You do not even remember it, and you do not care. It is just a political point on which you think you can score.
Mr Speaker, while our unemployment rate is better than the national average and our job creation is better than the national average, there are a few other key variables that we need to have a look at. New dwellings approvals for the December quarter of 1990 were up 22.8 per cent in the ACT compared to the previous year. Australia-wide they were down by 10.3 per cent - not up; down or negative. Real retail turnover in the December quarter of 1990 was up 2.2 per cent in the ACT, but nationally it was down by 3.5 per cent. Real tourist accommodation takings in the June quarter of 1990 were up 10.2 per cent. There was an increase of only 1.2 per cent nationally. At the end of 1990 average weekly earnings in the ACT were $544.90 - considerably higher than the national level of $490.60.
Mr Speaker, the economic indicators speak for themselves. The local economy is doing well compared to the rest of the country and I could suggest, Mr Speaker, although these people opposite will sneer, that it just might be because here we have a government that has been prepared to take some hard decisions and create a financial and economic climate in which business can prosper, as compared to the harebrained schemes of the previous Government. They are still saying, "If we get back into government, we are going to tax the private sector". The private sector is where the jobs are; that is where the revenue growth is. But they are going to tax it out of existence. That is your approach. It is not mine. We are doing very well. I think that, when members of the Opposition try to take cheap political points off the Government on that issue, they are bound to fall on their face.
Health Budget
MR BERRY: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister. When the Chief Minister rose to his feet on a question some time ago he said, "... there were strong signs that the management was out of control when he was the Minister". He was referring to me, and he was right.
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