State Economy

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (15:28): I rise further to the Premier's earlier comments to share some further detail about the extraordinary achievement that South Australia has recorded over the last two weeks, now being found as the number one performing state economy in the nation. This is an extraordinary achievement for all South Australians. This is not an achievement necessarily for this government; this is an achievement for all participants in our economy. This has been an extraordinary effort over the last couple of years in particular as the state has gone from strength to strength.

In the last two weeks we have been found to be the number one economy in the nation, leading the nation on four of the eight key economic indicators that the CommSec report looks at. If you cast your mind back to two years before, and you look at the CommSec State of the States report that covered the performance of all states and territories for the first quarter of 2022, the state was ranked equal fifth in the nation, and this shows the remarkable progress which we have made as a state in only the last two years or so.

Those four areas that the CommSec State of the States report finds indicates just how important this achievement has been for our state's economy and where we can expect to see the growth going forward. Pleasingly, in the first full financial year of the Malinauskas Labor government, South Australia had the fastest economic growth rate amongst all states. What a remarkable achievement—3.8 per cent—significantly higher than the national growth rate of 3.1 per cent.

The most recent survey from the ABS has our unemployment rate once again below 4 per cent, not quite at the record low that has been recorded in the last six or so months of 3.6 per cent, but to be at 3.9 per cent, a full percentage point lower than what it was at the time of the last election, shows just how strong jobs growth has been; tens of thousands more South Australians employed over the last two years and, pleasingly, a significant reduction of the number of unemployed in South Australia.

We lead the nation on construction work. A record $8 billion in engineering construction work was done in the year to the September quarter and, as the Premier said, we lead the nation on dwelling starts, which could not be more important as the nation confronts a housing crisis and, in particular, a housing affordability crisis.

I spend quite a bit of time, as pretty much everyone does on this side of the chamber, thinking about what our role and responsibility is to try to provide an environment in which economic growth can flourish. Of course, it is not all up to the state government. We are only one significant economic participant, but we are by no means the largest participant in the economy. We represent less than a fifth of economic activity, so this is really an achievement of the majority of South Australians, but it is our role to provide some certainty and some confidence to back up the public investments that we commit to.

I cast my mind back to roughly the same point in time of the last electoral cycle, and think about the two different approaches from this government compared to the previous government. Now you might remember at about this same time of the previous economic cycle under the previous Liberal government we had had six months of the most contentious, debilitating public debate about land tax reform that the state could remember, and we had a Business SA survey released with its latest confidence statistics showing that business confidence cratered at the end of 2019 after this debilitating debate over land tax.

There had been a drop-off in the intentions for private sector investment. There had been a drop-off in housing finance commitments because uncertainty had been introduced into the South Australian economy by that. Contrast that to the approach of this government. We have committed to no new taxes and no tax increases, and not only have we done that but we have cut taxes, particularly for first-home buyers in the middle of a housing affordability crisis. This is a great achievement by the whole state, and one which the government looks forward to continue fostering into the future.