Berry Puts Forward A Jobs Plan

Wayne Berry - Opposition Spokesperson on Employment

Media Statement - 10 April 2001

Labor Shadow Employment Minister Wayne Berry has put forward a jobs plan for the ACT Government which will offer immediate jobs for up to 45 workers and better safety for Canberrans.

Mr Berry's plan follows the ACT Government's moves to ditch jobs in ACT Forests and the failure of the Humphries Government to put forward a plan to deal with the impending downturn which is set to continue.

"I have been calling for a Government plan to deal with the impending downturn for months and there has been no response to my requests. We have seen the signs in the ANZ job advertisement series and the ABS Labour Force figures. Job advertisements are down and unemployment is rising," Mr Berry said today.

"The ACT Fire Brigade is about 40 firefighters down on its full complement which means that firefighters are being forced to work massive amounts of overtime and are being denied access to recreation and long service leave. There will also be approximately 5 retirements in the next few months.

"In other words the government is paying time and a half and double time instead of filling vacancies and is continuously building up its leave liabilities to firefighters because of the shortage of staff.

"Instead of wearing out long serving staff the government should recruit and train staff to fill the vacancies. This would address two problems at once - it would overcome the staff shortage and it would give jobs to some of our increasing numbers of unemployed.

"These jobs are already there and the government doesn't have to manufacture some business welfare plan to subsidise jobs to make it look as though it is doing something on the jobs front. The government just has to fill its own vacancies," Mr Berry concluded.