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ACCOUNTANTS MUST NOT LOSE sight of the big picture as they assess the detail of the Federal government's White Paper on Employment and Growth.
The sentence that perhaps best sums up the government's strategy is found on page 13 of the summary of the government's Working Nation package: "Every young Australian should be in education, training or employment."
Just one day before he delivered the White Paper, Mr Keating said that Australia's best competitive advantage was no longer its wheat and wool industries but our education system.
That belief is evident throughout the White Paper. The White Paper says that education, training and retraining are the means by which Australia can become, as Mr Keating says, a "capable" as well as a "clever" country.
He says that the government is extending a hand to help the country's 350,000 long-term unemployed. According to the White Paper, the government is planning to spend no less than $10.3 billion over the next four years in getting Australians back to work in highly productive, well paid jobs.
The government estimates that the net cost of the strategy, after clawbacks, will be $6.5 billion.
With amounts of this magnitude coming into play, it is hardly surprising that Australia's financial markets took fright when they were announced, despite the fact that the net figure had been well flagged before Mr Keating's...