Page 2783 - Week 10 - Tuesday, 13 September 1994
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QUESTIONS WITHOUT NOTICE
Unemployment
MRS CARNELL: My question without notice is to the Chief Minister. I refer to more bad news for the ACT, as reported in the Department of Social Security statistics released on 8 September for up to the end of August this year. The statistics show that the number of long-term jobless in Canberra has increased by 15.5 per cent over the last 12 months, compared with an average drop of 4 per cent across Australia. Will the Chief Minister explain why the statistics in the ACT are so different from those over the rest of Australia?
MS FOLLETT: Mr Acting Speaker, I think the issue of unemployment is one that concerns all members of this Assembly. It has been pleasing to see throughout the recession that the unemployed figures in the ACT have remained the lowest in the country, by and large, and that has been reinforced in the latest monthly statistics that we have available. In fact, in the latest figures we saw an increase in full-time employment, which I thought was a very good sign indeed, and a decrease in the number of teenagers who are unemployed. I accept that it was a relatively small decrease, but it was a decrease nevertheless.
What we are seeing, I believe, Mr Acting Speaker, in the increase in long-term unemployment is the fact that, as people who are readily employed take up the jobs that are now becoming available, those people who are disadvantaged in the labour force are relatively more disadvantaged. In other words, they are remaining unemployed. This is an issue that we have addressed through a range of programs that I am sure Mrs Carnell would be familiar with; but I would refer, for instance, to programs like the Jobskills program and the Joblink program which are aimed at taking just these people who have been unemployed for some time, giving them appropriate on-the-job and off-the-job training, and ensuring that they are work ready and suitably qualified to take up jobs as our economy recovers. It is not something that is going to happen overnight because, as I said, there were people who were unemployed who were waiting to take up employment. The jobs have been available; but there are still some people who are still unemployed, and many amongst them are disadvantaged.
We also have particular programs in place to try to assist, for instance, women who are wanting to re-enter the paid work force after an absence of some time. For many of those women, if you were to look at the period for which they had been unemployed - that is, out of the paid work force - it would extend to 15 or 20 years, in some cases, while they raised their families. We have a women's work force development scheme which is aimed at assisting those women to get up to date on their skills and their experience in today's work force so that they are more competitive in the job market. We have particular employment programs available for people from Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander backgrounds because we know that they are also disadvantaged in the labour market.
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