House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2013-10-17 Daily Xml

Contents

EMPLOYMENT FIGURES

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (14:36): Supplementary, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Supplementary, yes.

The Hon. I.F. EVANS: My question again is to the Minister for Employment. Is the reason the Minister for Employment won't confirm that she agrees with the Premier's statement that the number of South Australian jobs has grown in the last four months because the ABS statistics show that, in trend terms, South Australia has lost 12,000 jobs in the last four months and, in seasonally adjusted terms, they show that they lost 17,600 jobs in the last four months?

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI (Hartley—Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:36): The first point is that the Premier answered that question. He addressed that question. The second thing about ABS statistics is that we have original data, we have trend data—we can all use statistics to suit our particular argument. I note that the unemployment figures came down from 6.8 per cent to 6 per cent. The point the acting minister made at the time was that these figures do jump around but, certainly, we are committed to future jobs growth and investment.

The SPEAKER: Is this a supplementary?