State Economy

Ms HOOD (Adelaide) (14:28): Thank you, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer update the house on the South Australian economy?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries) (14:28): I am grateful to the member for Adelaide for the question and her interest in the economy because, as recently as last week, there was yet another round of good news about South Australia's economic performance. This is a remarkable achievement, particularly in the face of a national economy which is slowing, and slowing in response to the most swift and extraordinary increase in the cash rate by the Reserve Bank in an effort to get inflation under control. Not only have we recorded good figures in the last week but, once again, they are nation-leading figures; and at a time when the nation's economy is slowing, for South Australia again to be performing as the best in the nation is really good news for our community and the participants within our economy.

Last Thursday the ABS released the latest labour force data and it showed that our unemployment rate had fallen to 3.9 per cent, the equal lowest in the nation and, pleasingly, once again below the national average of 4.2 per cent. It is interesting to note that this is the 13^th time that the ABS has reported monthly labour force data for South Australia where our unemployment rate has had a 3 in front of it, that it has been below 4 per cent, and that is the 13^th time since records began 46 years ago. Those 13 times have been recorded in the last two years, so that just shows how strongly our state's economy is performing. A full percentage point lower than what it was—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Flinders! The leader!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —at the time of the last election. A full percentage point lower—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader and the member for Flinders, I don't want to have to chuck you out in front of the Kimba kids.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —and 44,000 extra jobs created since the last election. Good news for our state's economy. It is also recorded on the back of, once again, more than 20,000 job vacancies recorded in the state's economy. So not only are records being set for a nation-leading low unemployment rate, but record-high job vacancies are still persisting in the economy.

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: That is absolutely terrific news for our economy. The Leader of the Opposition cries out that this is something which the government should not be celebrating. We should be celebrating the fact that there are 44,000 more South Australians in work today than 2½ years ago—44,000.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader and deputy leader will come to order.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta will leave the chamber for the rest of question time.

The honourable member for Morialta having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Thank you for your protection, Mr Speaker. That is really good news for those South Australians who are continuing to look for work in our economy. The good news continues, of course. As we previously reported, South Australia is rated the best-performing economy in the nation three quarters in a row and those three quarters being the last three quarters of data recorded by the CommSec State of the States report—really good news for participants in the state's economy.