Employment Figures

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (14:57): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer please contrast the labour force figures released today with the ABS single-touch payroll figures released just two days ago?

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.P. Wortley: Trying to sugar-coat.

The PRESIDENT: The Treasurer has the call.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Treasurer has the call. The leader will be quiet.

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: And the Hon. Mr Ridgway is not helping.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: This is your time ticking down. The Treasurer has the call, before he injures himself.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:58): Exactly. These pens can bite you, Mr President. I thank the honourable member for his question because indeed the figures—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Leader of the Opposition!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: The figures released in the last 48 hours have indeed been contrasting. I think, as Minister Pisoni has indicated today, the labour force figures released today are indeed disappointing and indicate from the government's viewpoint, as we have said all along, that there is still much work that needs to be done.

When one looks at the labour force figures today, it is hard to comprehend that, just two months ago, those figures recorded that South Australia had the best and the lowest unemployment rate in the nation—that's for the month of November—and just two months later the figures indicate that they are the highest in the nation. Suffice to say we heard nothing from the opposition about those figures when they were released in November, but they are very chirpy today in relation to the labour force figures that have been released.

But the question, which is an apt one, contrasts the figures released today with the figures released only 48 hours ago, which are the single-touch payroll figures released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The labour force figures today for the month of January are a survey based on the first two weeks of January, and some—whatever it is—four or five weeks later these numbers are released in the monthly update, the labour force, for January.

The single-touch payroll figures that were released only two days ago are more recent figures, because they are based on the last week's payroll figures for January. So the survey results released today are based on the first two weeks of January. The single-touch payroll figures released two days ago are more recent; they are based on payroll figures for the last week of January.

Of course, our chirpy critics in the opposition do not want to concentrate on the more recent figures, the payroll figures from just the last week of January, because what they demonstrate was that on the job growth figures South Australia led the nation and on wage growth figures since the lowest point of the pandemic, in the middle of April, we were the second leading state or territory in the nation.

I think what they do demonstrate is that these figures are contrasting. The single-touch payroll figures, the more recent figures, demonstrate South Australia leading the nation or being the second leading state leading the nation; the labour force figures based on the first two weeks of January indicate that we now have the highest unemployment rate in the nation.

What they both indicate, and it is what this government indicated in the November budget, is the important and critical need of the $4 billion two-year economic stimulus package that the government announced in November. That $4 billion stimulus package, which we released in November already, both before it and since—a quarter of a billion dollars in grants, two lots of grants of up to $10,000 to thousands of small businesses and non-government organisations in South Australia through the Small Business Grant scheme.

I will not go through all of the details, because we are anxious to get as many questions as we can into question time, but there are two elements that I do think need reinforcing: the important initiative the government has announced in relation to payroll tax. There is a long debate that we have been having nationally and in South Australia about JobKeeper assistance being phased out by March of this year. People have asked the question both of the federal government and the state government, 'What are you going to do?'

Well, importantly, this government, I again reinforce, has taken a decision that no small business in this state with a payroll under $4 million will pay any payroll tax from April of last year through to June of this year. So beyond the phasing out of JobKeeper the taxpayers of South Australia—it is not government money; the taxpayers of South Australia are putting their hands into their pockets and also borrowing large sums of money to continue to assist every small business in the state with not having to pay any payroll tax right through to June 30.

In addition to that, the taxpayers have been even more generous, because what they've said is every medium and large-sized business in the state which is still COVID impacted—and we can think of some businesses in the travel sector, in the aviation sector, in international education support services and some in the tourism and hospitality sector, who remain COVID impacted; the taxpayers of South Australia are generously saying to those COVID impacted companies, 'Even though JobKeeper might finish in March, the taxpayers of South Australia are going to say—

The PRESIDENT: The Treasurer should bring his answer to a conclusion.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Thank you, Mr President. In a very generous package, over $4 million, they won't have to pay any payroll tax from January through to June 30 of this year.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: No, this is for the over $4 million—over $4 million. So, Mr President, I take your advice. There are many more very generous elements to the government's $4 billion package, but it is important that the payroll tax initiatives are well understood by all members in this particular chamber.