State Final Demand

The Hon. I. PNEVMATIKOS (14:56): My question is to the Minister for Trade and Investment. Can the minister outline the sectors of the economy that have contributed to what he claims is 0.1 per cent decline in state final demand? Secondly, what does the minister think are the best measure or indicators of trade and investment in South Australia?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade and Investment) (14:57): I thank the honourable member for her question. As I outlined earlier, the areas that have been doing particularly well in South Australia are some of the sectors—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: —from a tourism perspective. Certainly, some of our exports are doing well; some are not, unfortunately. Of course, state final demand is broadly a measure of spending in the domestic economy and a whole range of factors relate to that.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Clearly, there are sectors that contribute to it, like the housing sector. There is a whole range of sectors, but the ones that I am directly responsible for as minister, from a trade and investment point of view, are exports, tourism, international education, some of the areas that have been doing particularly well.

The members opposite don't get out enough to realise that we have had a couple of particularly bad droughts. We have had problems and, of course, debt. We have had some grain grown, but most of it has not gone to export, it has gone interstate to other states, so it hasn't been measured as actual exports for the economy. There are a range of sectors that the Marshall Liberal government will look at. We need to continue to focus on growing our services sector.

Services are not a particularly large part of our economy, compared to some of the other states, and I think that's where the other states are bigger and more resilient—Victoria and New South Wales in particular—and that's an area that will have an ongoing focus for the government.