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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-03-19 Daily Xml
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Ministerial Statement

ECONOMIC STATEMENT

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:35): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Last Friday, I had the pleasure of releasing the government's economic statement. This statement is a comprehensive examination of the state's economy, beginning with our past economic development, the current economic context in which we find ourselves and identifying the economic opportunities of the future. We have endured challenging economic times. The global financial crisis has suppressed economic growth around the world and governments have responded in various ways to meet these challenges.

The timing of the government's economic statement could not be more important. The global financial crisis has exacerbated what has been a significant structural shift in global economic output over the past 20 years. Europe and North America are seeing their proportion of global economic output diminish against the high growth economies of China, India and the ASEAN nations.

Informed by independent economic modelling, the statement is a candid assessment of our state's economic prospects. It describes the scenarios that the changing global economy could present, from a scenario characterised by high demand for our resources through to a risky world of multiple economic shocks. Under all scenarios, our state's economy is predicted to grow, but how much we grow depends on what we do now.

In the economic statement, I have set out the four areas the state government will focus on to make the most difference. The first is advanced manufacturing: developing more innovative and productive manufactured goods so that our manufacturers are competing on value rather than unit cost. The second is extending our efforts to grow the mining sector with a focus on mining services, to ensure the broader economy captures the value of increased mining activities. The third is to take advantage of growing global concerns about food security and food integrity and promote our premium food and wine products to the global market and their production from our clean environment. Last, the creation of a vibrant city that attracts and retains skilled workers, that projects the values of our state to the world, and that provides exciting lifestyle and career opportunities for our young people.

But achieving these opportunities for growth will be challenging. There are things that we must change to do better. South Australia must become more outward-looking—to be open to the economic opportunities afforded by export markets and to embrace the change and technologies that will help us become more productive. We must also build on our culture of creativity and innovation, those essential elements which allow businesses to become more productive. Increasing productivity will allow business to produce goods and services from their input costs, and also to add greater value to these goods and services. As an economy, we also need to be competing on value, rather than unit cost, where lower cost countries, especially in our region, are proving tough to compete with.

Finally, we need to reassert the role of partnerships between strong government and a strong business sector, backed by a strong community. In South Australia, we have a strong history of identifying and driving opportunities for economic development. It includes Sir Thomas Playford's success in creating a successful manufacturing sector in concert with the creation of the South Australian Housing Trust for its workers. It includes Don Dunstan's success in developing our creative industries through the arts, and it includes this government's success in securing the Air Warfare Destroyer contract for our defence manufacturing sector and driving the growth of our mining sector.

I believe that in South Australia there will always be a role for government in driving economic development, and that role is to do so in partnership with business and the community. This is something this government strongly believes in and has a track record of delivering—that is the South Australia I have backed in this economic statement.

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