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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2002 Week 1 Hansard (11 December) . . Page.. 57 ..
MR STANHOPE (continuing):
There are some real concerns about those numbers, of course, and we do need to put them in context. There are some very worrying indicators there, including the fact that the work force participation rate in the ACT has fallen by 2 per cent over the last year. The only place in Australia that has suffered a significant decline in participation is here in the ACT. All the indicators from the Bureau of Statistics show that, over the last 14 months, the ACT has lost 6,000 full-time jobs from the work force.
For a new government, these are very worrying indicators indeed, and we will take significant steps to redress this situation. In a ministerial statement to be delivered by the Treasurer tomorrow, he will give some indication of the programs that we will put in place to immediately deal with the worrying aspects of full-time employment in the ACT that we face and that we have inherited from the former government.
Certainly, there are other aspects of activity here in the ACT that do indicate the strength of the local economy and do indicate the strength of our commitment to community services, and infrastructure such as education, the other issue that you raised in your question. Of course, we have had an interesting debate about that, and we do know that, while we here in the ACT have traditionally led the way in relation to educational outcomes, once again there are some very worrying signals for us to deal with.
We will deal with those, particularly through our determination to reapply the $27 million which you proposed to spend on your completely misguided and vote-buying attempts to provide a free school bus scheme for the ACT. We will apply all of those resources to education to overcome, in particular, the concerns signalled in the last report into the educational circumstances here in the ACT, which included a stark indicator: the fact that the completion rate of students here in the ACT has dropped. The year 12 retention rate has declined by 6 per cent over the last year. The ACT was the only jurisdiction in Australia to suffer a decline in retention rates.
This is another legacy of the previous government which we will strive to overcome and redress. This is something we will not tolerate.
MR HUMPHRIES: I wonder, Mr Speaker, if the Chief Minister would express an opinion about the other things mentioned in my question, which he did not refer to: inheriting a record level of export activity-
MR SPEAKER: Mr Humphries, could we avoid the preliminaries and keep to the question please?
MR HUMPHRIES: I am asking the question, Mr Speaker. The question is whether he will answer those parts of my question that he did not answer previously, namely: did he inherit export activity at an all-time high for ACT businesses, business confidence the strongest in Australia, an education system that has been rated by the OECD at the very top of international achievement? Will he indicate, in addition, what effect the government's election commitments will have on these key economic and social indicators?
MR STANHOPE
: I am more than happy to repeat those parts of my answer that did actually acknowledge the worrying aspects of the legacy that the Liberals have left us. The fact is that, in their stewardship over the last three years, they did run down
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