Unemployment Figures

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:22): My question is to the Premier. Why does South Australia have a worse unemployment rate than Victoria despite the fact that our participation rate is also worse than Victoria's?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:22): I know that the Leader of the Opposition has a list of questions that have been prepared from the dream factory for him—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Wright is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and he is just working through them, but he might have listened to my first answer, and it is a fact that there has been a decrease in the participation rate. If you look at the way you actually determine what that unemployment rate is, it's a function regarding the number of people—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —relative to the participation rate. What we have seen is a reduction in the participation rate. As I said in answer to the first question, that's pretty normal—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Skills and Industry is warned for a second time.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and you would expect that at the moment because they have been in a punishing lockdown. When I look at the statistics today, they are pretty damaging and worrying in Victoria with nearly 2,300 new infections today; 18,000—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my left, the Premier is making a contribution and I am doing my best to listen carefully.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It's interesting that the opposition are making mirth when I am discussing a very serious situation in Victoria with—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: You're the one politicising it.

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens can leave for 30 minutes under 137A.

The honourable member for West Torrens having withdrawn from the chamber:

The SPEAKER: Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you, sir.

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Today was a very worrying day in—

The SPEAKER: Premier, please be seated. The Minister for Innovation and Skills can join him under 137A.

The honourable member for Unley having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: When you say 'join him', I think they will probably both be leaving the chamber; I doubt they will be joining you in the bar, knowing both their personalities very well.

The SPEAKER: You may be right there.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Today is a pretty tough day for our friends over in Victoria—almost 2,300 new infections; it's a record for them. Unfortunately, the Premier of Victoria, the Hon. Dan Andrews, had to report to the people in Victoria today about 18 deaths. They have had to take some very drastic measures in Victoria in terms of locking down that economy. They have had to do that and they have done it in accordance—

Mr Malinauskas: Yet they've got more jobs and a higher participation rate.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They have had to take that action in accordance with the recommendations of the health experts at the moment. Of course it's going to have a damaging effect on the participation rate, and of course there are—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We know that we are doing everything we can from a commonwealth level as well as a state level to support those people who are in a very difficult situation, either unemployed or underemployed or essentially on the support of the federal and state governments.

What I can say is that these are difficult times in various parts of Australia, most notably at the moment Victoria and the ACT. We do note that there is an improvement in recent days over in New South Wales, and we hope that they are bringing it under control. We know that the way out of this is vaccination. We know that all governments around Australia are doing everything they can to get to that 80 per cent, 16 and over double vaccination status. We know that this is going to significantly reduce that transmission rate and it is going to help from a health perspective, but it's also going to have a massive effect from an economic perspective.

We want to get our economy back to where it was pre COVID. In fact, in South Australia the economic outlook is stronger than it was pre COVID. I think everybody remembers reading the Deloitte Access Economics report earlier this week, where South Australia now has economic growth forecast this year at 3.6, the highest in the nation. That's going to continue because we are continuing to do extraordinarily well in terms of managing the coronavirus with the participation of all South Australians. Our employment is good, but there's still much more work to be done.