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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 1997 Week 8 Hansard (26 August) . . Page.. 2455 ..

Year 2000 Computer Problem

MR CORBELL: Mr Speaker, my question is to the Chief Minister. Chief Minister, a year ago today you put out a press release. On that day, 26 August, you put out a press release, and I quote from it:

An agreement to be signed by both parties at today's media conference will lead to the establishment of an accredited training and business services centre in Canberra to address the year 2000 problem, with the potential to generate more than a thousand jobs in Canberra.

Chief Minister, this is the press release. Just how many of the 1,000 jobs promised by you to the people of Canberra have been delivered by the Unisys People project?

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, since last November we have had nine months in a row of increased jobs in Canberra; in fact, we have had 7,300 new jobs since last November.

Mr Corbell: Mr Speaker, I was asking specifically about a project. It is a very straightforward question. How many jobs have been created from this project? We know the business statistics from the ABS. We want to know how many jobs have been delivered from this project so far.

MR SPEAKER: Mr Corbell, the Chief Minister is answering the question. She got only about half-a-dozen words out. I do not know whether or not she is going to come back to that in detail. Please give her a chance.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, I would have thought that those opposite would be very interested to hear about 7,300 new jobs since last November, the vast percentage of those being full-time jobs. I understand that there are more than 5,000 more jobs in Canberra now than there were when we came to government. That is a pretty impressive exercise, Mr Speaker, taking into account the Federal Government downsizing. The ACT Government did enter into a formal arrangement with Unisys Australia on - - -

Mr Corbell: On a point of order, Mr Speaker - - -

MRS CARNELL: I am talking about Unisys right now.

Mr Corbell: Mr Speaker, if the Chief Minister is ignorant of how many jobs have been created, I would much rather she just said so. I invite her to table the data they have. But if she does know, I would ask her to answer the question.

MR SPEAKER: There is no point of order.

MRS CARNELL: Mr Speaker, the ACT Government entered into a formal arrangement with Unisys Australia on, I thought it was, 25 October last year. Anyway, whenever it was, the Government agreed to contract the CIT to provide agreed courses to train people to become millennium accredited consultants. For its part, Unisys agreed to assist

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