Question Time

Unemployment Figures

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:01): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier have a plan to address unemployment and inflation in South Australia and, if so, what is it? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: ABS data released today shows that South Australia's unemployment rate has increased to 4.3 per cent, the highest in the nation. This is an increase of 0.6 per cent, also the highest in the nation, despite a drop in the participation rate, meaning 7,000 fewer people are employed. ABS data also confirms that South Australia retains the highest yearly inflation rate in Australia.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:02): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. To the best of my recollection, I think this is the first occasion on which the Leader of the Opposition has decided to ask a question about the state's unemployment figures—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —probably because for the last two months the South Australian unemployment rate has broken all records. In fact, last month alone the unemployment rate was the lowest unemployment rate that has ever been recorded in the history of South Australia—ever.

This is a government that takes very seriously the task of government to do everything we possibly can to ensure that the labour market is operating in the best and strongest possible way, and that is certainly still true in South Australia with an unemployment rate that remains at historically low levels.

Notwithstanding that, the government has a substantial economic plan and a vision for how our state can continue to grow in what are difficult economic circumstances. Indeed, globally we see a degree of headwinds in terms of the economy. The best thing that we can do as a state government is to ensure that we are investing heavily in our people. They have always been, always will be, our most substantial economic resource, and investing in their skills and their capabilities will go a long way to ensuring that labour productivity in South Australia improves and that, in turn, lends itself to more secure jobs, higher wages and a more attractive investment environment.

More than that again, the state government has a vision based on a few key pillars—a way that we believe the state's economy can grow along with our wealth as a state more broadly. Central to that of course is our vision around hydrogen and decarbonisation more broadly. This is not a government that is sitting on its hands and not willing to take a few risks, not willing to make some bold, decisive decisions when it comes to stimulating new industry in our state, which is exactly why we are investing $593 million of taxpayers' funds in a piece of core economic infrastructure in a new and emerging industry with what will be the world's largest hydrogen electrolyser and power plant.

Increasingly, there is a degree of notoriety, in a wholeheartedly positive way, for our state, interstate and abroad, at the action that we are taking, best evidenced at the experience the state government enjoyed in Rotterdam last week at the World Hydrogen Summit. There is a buzz about South Australia. There is an increasing consciousness that South Australia has already led the way when it comes to decarbonisation: 77 per cent of all our energy needs is electricity being met by green renewables. That is presenting itself as an opportunity to leverage up on to go one step further through the opportunity that exists within the hydrogen sector.

That doesn't represent the entirety of the government's economic policy; there is everything that we are doing around skills and of course what we are doing around naval shipbuilding to ensure that we maximise that opportunity. We will make every decision available to us. We are willing to pull—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —any lever, any tool, to ensure that economic growth is central to the government's policy and to a better standard of living for our South Australian community more broadly.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!