Jobs Growth

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:34): My question is to the Premier again. Can the Premier explain to the house why in each and every year under his government jobs growth has fallen in South Australia? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: ABS labour force data shows that annual jobs growth in the year to March 2018 was 2.3 per cent, falling to 1.8 per cent in March 2019, falling further to 0.5 per cent in the year to March 2020 and is now minus 1.2 per cent in the year to March 2021. Jobs growth has been falling long before COVID.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:35): I am not familiar with the statistics that the Leader of the Opposition is referring to. But when we look at the single touch data which has just recently been published by the ABS—this is a series which is published on a fortnightly basis—it gives us a great insight into what is going on right around the country on a very rapid basis. The most recent statistics which have come out which represent the fortnight up to 13 March show that South Australia did fall in that fortnight by 1.7 per cent, and that was better than the national fall, which was 1.8 per cent, which I think is a reflection of what may have been happening in that week relative to what was happening in the week before.

But if we look over the comparison between the same period last year, South Australia has had the second largest jobs growth of all states at 12.6 per cent. So if you are comparing that fortnight with the fortnight to 12 months ago, then we were up 12.6 with the second highest jobs growth in the nation. We have also had the second largest total wages growth of all states, at 10.4 per cent.

The Leader of the Opposition repeatedly wants to cherrypick negative statistics. I don't know why he does this. I don't know what his motivation for this is. Actually, South Australia is doing well.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: But it goes to the question as to his motivation. Why does he want to undermine—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The leader is a very angry person today. I am not quite sure what's going on. He hasn't got his mate from West Torrens here. He is up in the dream factory. He will be back down soon once he has done his penance.

But the reality is these statistics from the ABS show that South Australia has had the second highest jobs growth since the same time last year and the second highest total wages. In other words, our jobs are up 12.6 per cent and our wages are up 10.4 per cent. But the Leader of the Opposition wants to—

Mr Picton interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Kaurna!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —compare one fortnight with a preceding fortnight and catastrophise and say this is an absolute disaster. The people of South Australia know that things are moving in the right direction, and the reason I can tell that is because when we look at consumer confidence, when we look at investor confidence, when we look at business confidence, they are at decade highs.

So, despite the constant negativity, people can make up their own mind, and they actually say that they are grateful to have a sensible government in place which is going to listen to science, listen to the evidence, frame our response to the pandemic, keep our state safe and our economy strong. When we look at those statistics, actually wages have grown over the last 12 months. Jobs have grown over the last 12 months and that's because we have had a sensible and commensurate response to the situation that has unfolded across the world over the last 14 to 16 months; $4 billion worth of support for COVID-related support and stimulus went into our most recent budget.

We have been supporting businesses, whether it be through cash grants, whether it be through projects which bring forward economic activity to create jobs. We have a total infrastructure build in South Australia at the moment at $16.7 billion. That is supporting so many jobs in this state at the moment. I want to congratulate the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport and the entire cabinet on the work that they have done to roll out that comprehensive policy.

What I can say, though, is that there is much more work to be done, but that work is not going to be enhanced by the constant negativity and talking down of our state that we have seen from the opposition. People want this state to do well. People want this state to prosper. They want more jobs for the future. That doesn't come from negativity; it comes from policies. We still haven't seen any.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the leader, I call to order the member for Cheltenham, I warn the member for Kaurna, I warn the member for Ramsay and I call to order the Deputy Premier.