Key Performance Indicators

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (16:33): Supplementary question arising out of the answer: just to be clear, the Treasurer has indicated that there will be targets set and that these will be measured targets in unemployment, underutilisation rate and growth rates in GSP. So, the government will be setting targets with time frames about what they expect these figures to be.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (16:33): The Premier and I have already indicated—for example, in relation to the state economic growth—that our long-term target is to have both economic growth and employment growth approaching the national growth rates. We accept the fact that, after 16 years, when one looks at the employment growth over the last three years or five years, our employment growth in South Australia has significantly trailed the employment growth nationally. Our target in the long term has to be to try to get employment and economic growth closer to the national average. In our view, that has to be a target of any sensible, rational government, so that will be our target.

In terms of the costs of doing business in South Australia, we have said publicly already on a number of occasions that over the long term our businesses in South Australia, in particular small and medium size businesses, need to be nationally and internationally competitive. To do that, our costs of doing business in South Australia need to be nationally and internationally competitive.

We accept the fact that we are not going to be able to turn around the problems of the last 16 years that we have inherited in one year or two years. These need to be short, medium and long-term goals, but the long-term goal has to be that we need to be nationally competitive. We need to, at the very least, match the national growth rate or the national targets in terms of services. For example, in education and health we should be matching the national targets. Over the long term, we would hope we could actually do better, but we are not going to be able to turn those particular performance measures around in the short term.