EMPLOYMENT FIGURES

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (14:19): Why has South Australia's unemployment increased by 26 per cent since you became Premier of South Australia?

The SPEAKER: No, I never became the Premier of South Australia.

Mr MARSHALL: Since the Premier took office.

The SPEAKER: Premier.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:20): Mr Speaker, those opposite have the luxury of pontificating about the circumstances as they might like them to be. I have the responsibility of dealing with the circumstances as I find them as the leader of this state. As leader of this state, I have the responsibility to take every step consistent with growing this economy to ensure that we have meaningful well-paid jobs for our citizens. We have taken every single step consistent with that since the moment I took office in this job. We have brought forward every piece of government expenditure which we could responsibly do to ensure that we maintain the momentum for growth in this economy.

We have, on any view of it, created a sense of excitement in the CBD which is sending a message not only across this nation but around the world that in this state something exciting is happening here. This is the message that is being created by the changes that we have brought to bear on our capital city, and our challenge is to ensure that that message is sent more broadly, because we know that you cannot have a successful region if you have a dying capital city.

That is what we found when we came into office—a listless, dying state that had no ideas and no confidence and no future. I know those opposite are so desperate to talk down this state but there is a new spirit alive in South Australia, and the only thing that could snuff that out is if there was the horrible choice of turning to those opposite to run this state.

The SPEAKER: A supplementary?