EMPLOYMENT FIGURES

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (14:14): My question is again to the Premier. Why are 12 per cent more South Australians unemployed since he became Premier?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:14): These are the factual matters: since actually coming to government, 129,200 new jobs; since the last election, an extra 14,700 new jobs; since I assumed this role, an extra 2,400—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I call the member for Adelaide to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: So, those are the factual matters. What completely—

Mr MARSHALL: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Just before you make the point of order; if the point of order is going to be, 'I asked about unemployment and the Premier keeps talking about employment', that's not going to be a very good point of order, is it?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: What is the point of order?

Mr MARSHALL: Relevance, sir.

The SPEAKER: Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I think the truth of the matter is today the unemployment figures came out, and what it demonstrated is that South Australia's unemployment rate remains steady when the national rate actually increased. And so, the—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: As downcast as they are about the absence of bad news, they have to search for something in the statistics.

Mr PISONI: Point of order, sir, and I refer you to No. 137: the Premier has continually ignored your instruction—

The SPEAKER: You mean he's been doing it all day?

Mr PISONI: —not to debate.

The SPEAKER: I will listen very carefully to what the Premier has to say in response to this question.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Thank you, Mr Speaker. On the topic of unemployment, generally movements in unemployment figures are broadly consistent with the trends across Australia. In trend terms, we are similar to Victoria (5.7 per cent), Queensland (5.8 per cent), and the national trend rate is 5.5 per cent. In comparison to the world, South Australia's unemployment rate is consistently lower than the OECD and the G20 averages. Based on the latest figure, it is lower than France, Belgium, the United Kingdom and Canada. If we compared the South Australian unemployment rate to countries' unemployment rates, we would be ninth of 34 OECD countries and 10^th of the G20 countries. This is—

Mr MARSHALL: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: A point of order from the Leader of the Opposition.

Mr MARSHALL: Relevance: we are trying to ascertain why there are 12 per cent more people unemployed in South Australia—what are the reasons for this—not just this diatribe of statistics.

The SPEAKER: Yes, I think I've got the point of order. Perhaps the Premier will consider offering information about that also. Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Well, Mr Speaker, the information I am offering to the house is absolutely relevant. On any measure—nationally, internationally or, if you would like, historically (that is, your 7 per cent unemployment rate in February 2002)—South Australia is performing strongly. This is something to be proud of; stop talking down this state!

The SPEAKER: Leader, have another go.