Goods and Services Tax

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (14:25): I have a supplementary question arising from the minister's answer. Does the minister or does the government believe that an increase in the GST from 10 per cent to 15 per cent to help fund the health issues the minister has identified will create jobs or ensure there are jobs lost in the South Australian community?

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) (14:25): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. Indeed, jobs are a priority for this government, an absolute priority. We have outlined a wide range of initiatives to stimulate job growth, but we also appreciate that the healthcare needs of South Australians and Australians are also paramount and these also must be met. Therefore, South Australia is working with the federal government—the Turnbull Liberal government—and also with other governments, other jurisdictions around Australia, to help ensure that we get the fairest and best outcome for Australians, including South Australians.

Indeed, our commitment to employment can be seen in today's figures, where our headline unemployment figure fell from the revised 7.6 per cent to 7.3 per cent. We see that there are almost 6,000 more people employed in South Australia than at the start of the year—6,000. The level of unemployment has declined for four consecutive months—four consecutive months—

The Hon. R.L. Brokenshire: What about the trend? The trend is not good.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Four consecutive months. The Hon. Robert Brokenshire asks what about trend. The trend for the last four consecutive months has been a decline. That is a pretty firm trend. It is very reassuring to also see that growth in full-time and part-time jobs occurred this month. We are very pleased to see that. Indeed, I believe it is the highest level of employment in almost 2½ years, so we are very pleased to see some of the many strategies that we put in place helping to finally provide some relief in terms of improving employment.

Our participation rate has always been problematic for us, given the high number of aged members of our population. You can see that our rate is actually higher than that that recorded for the start of the year. The youth data is not particularly reliable because of the level of volatility in it, but nevertheless we are also very pleased that the unemployment rate for young people also decreased this month. Of course, South Australia is also very proud of the fact that over 90 per cent of youth aged 15 to 24 years are either working or employed in full-time study, and that is higher than the national average, which is 89.9 per cent. So 90 per cent of our young people are either working or studying.

In terms of our priorities for addressing employment, very importantly our Mid-Year Budget Review provided a number of further measures to those of the previous budget and ones before that to attract investment and support jobs growth and industry thriving in this state. We have brought forward the nation-leading tax cuts for businesses, making South Australia the lowest taxing state in the country for stamp duty on non-residential property. It formed part of $518 million in economic initiatives to accelerate South Australia's economic plans, supporting, I am told, more than 1,600 new jobs. That includes the $208 million to build 1,000 Housing Trust homes in 1,000 days. They are just a couple of the measures that we have put in place to help accelerate jobs here in South Australia.