Job Advertisements Down - Another Humphries Apology?

Wayne Berry - Opposition Spokesperson on Employment

Media Statement - 9 July 2001

Today's ANZ Job Advertisement figures are just another grim reminder that the Humphries Government has no answer to falling employment in the ACT, Labor Shadow Employment Minister Wayne Berry said today.

Mr Berry's statement follows the release today of the ANZ Job Advertisement series for June 2001 which show job ads in the ACT trending downwards for four months in a row.

"At a time when unemployment has been rising for six months, job ads have been falling," Mr Berry said.

"This means that more bad news is likely - and still there has been no activity from the Humphries Government about dealing with the problem.

"I have been calling for action on this for six months now and all I hear is a stream of abuse from the Liberals. It's about time they faced the problems instead of being paralysed in denial.

"The Government's indifference to jobs in the Territory could be no better exemplified than the embarrassing discovery that the Government had failed to fill 50 job vacancies in the ACT Fire Brigade.

"The Liberal Government is bunkered down for the October election and is so rattled by its mistakes of the past - Bruce stadium, the fatal hospital implosion, the Floriade fee and the 'Feel the Power' fiasco - that paralysis has set in.

"Now that the signs have been ignored for six months, the lack of confidence shown by business in these employment intentions can hardly be surprising. There is nothing surer than the difficulty of recovery from this lost ground.

"Apologies for past mistakes are all we hear from Chief Minister Humphries. Are we about to hear another for his failure on the jobs front?" Mr Berry concluded.