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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2021-05-06 Daily Xml
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Grievance Debate

State Economy

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (15:22): Having observed the Premier's performance throughout the course of the week in question time, it is hard not to notice that the Premier appears to be residing in a different universe from most other people living in the real world of South Australia at the moment.

The Premier, when asked during the course of this week, particularly yesterday, about the state of the South Australian economy, kept referring back to statistics regarding the state's confidence regarding business confidence that we see in South Australia and certainly throughout the country. That is rational, because we know that South Australians and Australians at the moment, probably more than at any time in recent history, have an extraordinary profound consciousness of just how lucky we are to live in this amazing state in this amazing country.

Now more than at any time in the last 20 or 30 years we are being reminded throughout the course of the COVID crisis that we are blessed with a unique location in this world with good government, a good system, a good constitution, with a federation that works, and that lends itself to a sense of confidence, and we are right to reflect on that. But what the Premier does not seem to have any consciousness of is that that confidence does not necessarily lend itself to a better standard of living for so many people in our state, particularly in comparison to the rest of the nation.

When the member for Dunstan was the Leader of the Opposition, time and time again he set very clear standards around where he thought South Australia should be when it comes to key metrics within our economy. In fact, the government's own policy is to aspire to economic growth of no less than 3 per cent. That is why it has become so increasingly obvious and indeed somewhat startling that throughout the course of this government, not just during the period of COVID but throughout the entirety of this government, the state's economy has been in decline.

We assert, I think quite reasonably now that we are almost 3½ years into the life of this government, that that is a direct function of the fact that there is no economic plan from those opposite—just a bunch of slogans, just a bunch of hotch-potch announcements here and there, but no thoughtful plan or strategy that actually speaks to the future of our state, future industries, to actually deliver the jobs where we need them the most. The problem we have is that you are never going to fix a problem that you do not acknowledge exists in the first instance. You are never going to fix a problem if you are not aware of it.

Let's just go through the startling reality that cannot be denied. Jobs growth throughout each and every year of this government has been in decline, as have economic statistics around gross state product. On labour force numbers, yes, we have the worst unemployment rate in the nation; that is a fact that South Australians have become increasingly familiar with throughout the life of this government.

Of course, unemployment is higher than what this government inherited before the last state election of 5.6 per cent. It is higher now not just because of COVID; it was higher before COVID as well. But it is also true that throughout the life of COVID, where this Premier seems to revel in success, in actual fact South Australia has underperformed the rest of the nation by a very long way.

Mr Deputy Speaker, you will be surprised to learn that over the course of the last 12 months, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, every single state in this country has grown the number of jobs—every single state. Victoria, despite having a four-month lockdown over the last 12 months, has grown the number of jobs in that state; the number of people employed has gone up.

Every single state in the country, regardless of the COVID threat and challenge, has grown jobs, with one exception: the state of South Australia under the leadership of this Premier. We have declined the number of jobs in this state by 10,500. It cannot be denied that each and every year under this government jobs growth has fallen. There are more unemployed people now than in a long time. We have a jobs decline when everyone else is growing. Our economic growth rate has declined each and every year under the life of this government, and this Premier's response is to say, 'Nothing to see here; everything is going swimmingly,' and trying to suggest that the answer to all these problems is a basketball stadium.

We have a different view. We acknowledge the problem exists and we have a policy to do something about it. We have started rolling that out and South Australia is going to see plenty more to come over the course of the next nine months.

Time expired.

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