Page 688 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 22 February 2012
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The interesting part of this clause in the motion is the statement that we have a diversified economy. A third of our economy, as Mr Smyth said, is public administration and safety and it is inevitable that it will remain the dominant sector in our economy for some time to come. The Greens recognise that this will be the case and that, assuming that Gina Rinehart does not get her way but that much of the commonwealth administration remains in Canberra, we will continue to be disproportionately affected by the commonwealth government’s expenditure decisions.
However, I think we all agree with the principle that we need to encourage other sectors of the economy. It is worth considering the current make-up of our economy and our options for future economic prosperity. Currently, construction accounts for about nine per cent of our economic activity; professional, scientific and technical services for about 7.5 per cent; education and training 5.1 per cent; and financial and insurance services 4.9 per cent.
Clearly there is a substantial gap between the public service and other sectors. It is worth noting that there are a number of other economies that also have dominant sectors, such as mining in Western Australia. The challenge for us is to develop a strategy and to implement policies that ensure we have alternative economic opportunities to maintain our prosperity as we respond to both changes in commonwealth activity and the challenges of climate change.
We do have a strong education sector, and this is something that the Greens have always argued we should continue to invest in because of the enormous long-term benefits it will bring. Equally, many times in this place I have stood up and advocated for a range of other sectors that we should be looking towards to generate our future economic opportunities.
Earlier today we heard Mr Corbell talking about the success of the feed-in tariff and the process to date for creating a large-scale generation facility in the ACT. Of course the Greens very much agree with this initiative and everyone knows how strongly we have advocated for the renewable energy sector over many years.
Mr Corbell also spoke of the range of economic benefits that will accrue to the territory as well as the environmental ones. It is a sustainable industry that will create jobs and utilise and create a market for much of the innovation that occurs in research institutions here in the territory and many of the skills that are taught at the CIT. This is a particularly tangible example of diversifying the economy. It is disappointing, given we know Mr Smyth’s desire to diversify the economy, that the Liberal Party did not support the initiative.
Also today we debated a motion on waste and the Greens very clearly stated our view that we needed to ensure that to the greatest extent possible we source separate our waste so that we can use it again at its highest value use. Recycling and material recovery will be an important part of any sustainable economy. We have an opportunity now to ensure that the systems that we put in place will be able to respond to changes in our community and will not depend on a throwaway, waste-generating culture.
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