Single Touch Payroll

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (15:22): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer please outline to the house the latest Single Touch Payroll figures for South Australia?

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Hon. Mr Ridgway will not point.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The honourable Leader of the Opposition—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! The Leader of the Opposition and the Hon. Mr Ridgway seem to have this habit of having a conversation across the chamber, which is not welcomed. The Treasurer has the call.

The Hon. C.M. Scriven interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:23): I am delighted to be able to report to members the latest details of the Single Touch Payroll figures, which were released last week. As members know, they are released fortnightly, and they are one of the latest measures of payroll jobs and wages data being released by the independent Australian Bureau of Statistics. For the fortnight ending 10 April 2021, I am pleased to be able to report that, when compared over the last 12 months to the depths of the pandemic in April of last year, the total employee jobs in South Australia has increased by 12.5 per cent in that 12-month period.

We were only just pipped by Western Australia at 12.6 per cent in terms of being the state with the strongest jobs growth in the last 12 months, recovering from, as I said, the depths of the global pandemic in April of last year. Both Western Australia and South Australia, at 12.6 and 12.5, were well above the national average of just 10.2 per cent. Most of the Eastern States had percentage increases below the national average in the 9 per cent region, ranging from 9.4 per cent to 9.9 per cent.

As members will be aware, I also report to the house on a regular basis the other measure that the bureau reports on, the Single Touch Payroll, which is for employee wages. Again, that indicates that the strongest state, by some way, since the depth of the pandemic was actually Western Australia, with an increase in employee wages being paid of 12.6 per cent compared with the national figure of just 8.8 per cent. Victoria was second at 10.1 and South Australia was just behind at 9.8 per cent. New South Wales had, by far and away, the lowest increase in employee wages at just 6.9 per cent.

The Single Touch Payroll figures, together with the other surveys and together with the mixed messages we see in the monthly labour force figures, which have taken South Australia from being the best in the nation at the end of last year to being the lowest in the nation in the last month, paint—

The Hon. E.S. Bourke interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Bourke!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —mixed messages in terms of the state of the economic recovery within South Australia post COVID. However, the Single Touch Payroll figures, which are the most recent figures—and, as I said, touch not only on jobs but also on wages being paid—are critical determinants in terms of how healthy the economic recovery is in each of the states. We remain pleased to see the relatively strong performance of the South Australian economy in terms of the Single Touch Payroll figures released last week.