State Final Demand

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Leader of the Opposition) (14:58): A supplementary question, arising from the answer where the minister gave a definition of sorts of state final demand: does the minister stand by his claim earlier that it has contracted by 0.1 per cent for this second quarter?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade and Investment) (14:58): My advice is that it has, and I also note that the real trend over the last 12 months is that it remains unchanged, the actual figure. So the economy, it's no shock to anyone to say that it is not travelling in a particularly positive direction.

As I said, the members opposite just don't get out enough to see that we have some particular problems in our economy, particularly in an economy that has a large focus on industries other than the services sector, which tend to be much more resilient in times like this. That's why, as I said in my previous answer, we are going to have an ongoing focus on growing the services sector of our economy.