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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-10-18 Daily Xml
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State Economy

Ms STINSON (Badcoe) (14:44): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer provide the house with an update on the South Australian economy?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:44): Indeed, I can, because the South Australian economy is performing very strongly. In the labour market, we currently have the equal lowest unemployment rate on record at 3.9 per cent. There are now more South Australians in work than ever before: 893,500 people employed. Pleasingly, we no longer have the highest unemployment rate in the nation—a persistent problem under the previous government.

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Florey!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Treasurer has the call.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned. The Treasurer has the call.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Underemployment is down to 6.5 per cent. The previous four-year average was 9.2 per cent while those opposite were in government. The participation rate is now at 63.1 per cent compared with the average across the last four years, while those opposite were in power or whispering in the ear of those in power—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —of 62.7 per cent. Exports are performing very well at $15.1 billion through the year to August 2022. When it comes to economic growth, state final demand grew 4.7 per cent in the year to the June quarter and, pleasingly, the strongest quarter was the June quarter, that first quarter after the recent state election, at 1.5 per cent over—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is on two warnings. The Treasurer has the call.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The member for Morialta claims to have removed restrictions. History tends to disagree with him. Retail trade remains strong. Of course, along with these positive statistics, confidence rebounded after March as well. The NAB Monthly Business Survey taken to the end of March rose 14 index points from the February survey. But we have to be honest that there are storm clouds on the horizon, with successive cash rate rises from the RBA in an effort to tackle record inflation, inflation the likes of which we haven't seen for decades. Confidence is dampening across the Australian economy, including here in South Australia.

We are now seeing the commonwealth government, the OECD, the RBA and the US Federal Reserve sounding alarm bells around the resilience of the nation's economy and also the global economy. We have already seen the federal government revise down their growth projections for calendar 2023. The RBA has done similarly. We also see the OECD downgrading their forecast for Australia's economic growth to 2 per cent from 2.5 per cent. This should be concerning to all South Australians because just as we experience impacts from global economic conditions, we, of course, experience those from national economic conditions.

The war in Ukraine and the possibility—some say likelihood—of recession in Europe are substantial risks to that global economic outlook. What banks had been claiming was a substantial savings buffer is quickly receding as many more South Australians are dealing with higher mortgage rates and the high cost of living as a result of inflation.

We must be aware that there are storm clouds on the horizon. We are looking forward to the latest projections in the release of the federal budget on Tuesday. Of course, we will take the opportunity to update our economic forecasts in the coming Mid-Year Budget Review to be delivered before the end of the year.

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