State Economy

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): My supplementary question is to the Premier. Does the Premier expect the people of this state to believe that having the lowest participation rate on the mainland while having the highest unemployment rate in the country is good news?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:20): I hope these questions keep coming thick and fast because it gives me an opportunity to talk about how well this state is doing. We know that the ABS statistics move around. We know that.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The ABS give a warning about the volatility with regard to the figures at the moment. In fact, they are not even providing the trend data at the moment. If they actually took five minutes—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —to read what is actually—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —going on with those statistics, they would know a lot more about exactly and precisely what is happening. But a very good indicator of what is happening in terms of jobs and in terms of wages comes out on a fortnightly basis from the ABS with the national payroll data. This is all the pay-as-you-go data from the entire country. So instead of just a survey of 1,700 people with 400 people being added on and 400 people being taken off each year and then extrapolating that across $1.7 million, you've got every single pay-as-you-go piece of data in the state, in the nation, delivered every two weeks. What does that highly accurate data show? I can't believe they haven't raised this. I can't believe—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —they haven't come in here to congratulate the people of South Australia, the businesses in South Australia and, indeed, a supportive government for delivering what we see in these statistics. The figures are out today. I can't believe the—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —current leader has asked this question. Payroll jobs in South Australia for the last two weeks—are you ready for this?—grew 0.5 per cent against the nation of only 0.1 per cent, so five times faster than the nation. In terms of payroll wages—

Mr Knoll interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Schubert!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —for the two-week period, up a whopping 2.4 per cent.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Some might say, 'Well, look, that's a statistical anomaly,' so why don't we go back and look at the statistics from before the coronavirus to right about now, the last two weeks. Let's see what it shows. Are you ready?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Are you excited?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I'm a little bit excited too.

The SPEAKER: Order, the minister!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Let's take a look at this: South Australia has had the largest jobs growth of all the states. We've got more people, 0.7 of a per cent increase—0.7 of a per cent increase.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We've also, importantly—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: You can't just look at jobs, because many people have lost—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Many people have lost hours. They might have kept their jobs but they have had reduced hours, so it is also important to look at whether there has been an increase or a decrease in total wages paid for that period. I am just going to refer to my notes here: we've also had the highest total wages growth of all states—1.5 per cent up.

This is what happens when you put the people of South Australia first. This is what happens when you don't talk down the state. This is what happens when you manage a pandemic and you actually manage the health crisis—you get an economic benefit as well. We've already seen consumer confidence is up, business confidence is up, investor confidence is up and, as these ABS statistics show, so are jobs and wages.

My strong advice to my friends opposite is for them to stop talking down our great state. The people of South Australia have worked very, very hard over the last 12 months and they have a mighty challenge in front of them, another 12 months to roll out that vaccine. But let me say, they have done a great job. It's a pity that those opposite can't get on board.

The SPEAKER: Order! Before I call the member for Newland, I warn the member for Schubert, I call to order the member for Hammond, I call to order the member for Wright, I warn the member for Lee and I warn the member for West Torrens for a second time.