Unemployment Figures

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (14:58): My question is to the Leader of the Government. Given that today's unemployment figures for South Australia show that the trend unemployment rate jumped significantly from 7.9 per cent last month to 8.1 per cent this month, how does the minister defend her public statement reported on radio FIVEaa and other radio stations that 'some of the trend data is looking fairly solid with a general but slow improvement'.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:59): I thank the honourable member for his question, and the opportunity to talk about some of what is happening in terms of our employment opportunities. Today the unemployment figures for August were released and the headline figures came in at 7.9 per cent, which is steady as she goes.

It is the same figure as for the month before and, as I said, we can take some comfort that the figures had not deteriorated for August but, obviously, there is still a great deal of work to do. It is interesting that the opposition wouldn't seek to choose to use seasonally adjusted data whereas they would be well aware that the custom and practice is to report on headline rates, and that is referred to generally throughout the media.

The Hon. R.I. Lucas: That doesn't make sense, that sentence.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Well, go and read it back in Hansard. It makes perfect sense. I am saying that the media and other analysts, in terms of assessing and trending unemployment data, would generally use headline figures, seasonally adjusted figures, and that is not the figure that the opposition is choosing to use, which are not generally the figures referred to.

The Hon. R.I. Lucas: I asked you about the trend figures.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: I am referring to the figures that are generally reported and they are headline figures and they came in at 7.9 per cent for August and they are exactly the same as the figures for the previous month, so South Australia is showing a steady-as-she-goes trend.

I also indicated that the total employment for South Australia has been increasing for eight consecutive months and 7,300 more people have joined the workforce in the past eight months. That is the trend figure that I was referring to in the media that showed a solid trend performance, the fact that South Australia was continuing to increase its total employment for eight consecutive months. Also, other strong trend data is around our participation rates.

Our participation rate is at the highest level in two years, which means that more people are optimistic about finding work. Again, they are two areas of reported figures that show solid trend results. Nevertheless, I made it very clear that we had a great deal of work to continue to do to bring down unemployment. The state government continues to work extremely hard to secure employment and investment opportunities here in this state. We are very focused on the implementation of our 10 economic priorities to assist South Australia's transition from the old economy to the new economy.

There are a number of initiatives that we have put in place to assist workers and businesses in particular. We have developed detailed plans for helping businesses grow through payroll tax concessions, reforming WorkCover, and also, more recently, we announced a series of major tax reforms—a tax reform package of almost $670 million to help businesses invest and grow. Also, our most recent budget delivered a $985 million package to help grow jobs, and that includes major tax reforms and also targeted investment.

We are looking at injecting a further $315 million over four years to target infrastructure projects and we have injected new money into a number of initiatives to help drive the economy, particularly, two potential growth areas such as tourism and international education. Some additional funds were made available to increase marketing opportunities for international visitors and international students.

As I said, we have a series of initiatives and programs that we continue to roll out to help build a strong economy here in South Australia, to help build business confidence, to encourage investment and to encourage job growth.