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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2024-04-09 Daily Xml
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State Economy

Mr FULBROOK (Playford) (15:05): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer update the house on the performance of the South Australian economy?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (15:05): I thank the member for Playford for his question, because I think all South Australians should be very proud of the state's economic performance that has been recorded in recent weeks. Mr Speaker, you would remember that in the last sitting week the Premier advised the house that on the Thursday of that week South Australia had not only recorded the lowest unemployment rate on record at 3.2 per cent but also it was the first time since ABS records began that we recorded the lowest unemployment rate in the nation, which is an absolutely extraordinary result. Our unemployment rate of 3.2 per cent is well below the national rate of 3.7 per cent, of course.

That news was quickly followed by the release of job vacancy data. Despite recording the lowest unemployment rate in the state's history and the lowest unemployment rate in the nation, according to the ABS and the latest figures there are still 25,900 job vacancies across the South Australian economy—absolutely extraordinary. South Australia was the only jurisdiction to record growth through the year in job vacancies, with an increase over the year of 13 per cent. Nationally, of course, job vacancies fell by 18 per cent, so that is a remarkable disparity between the positive performance of the South Australian economy and the rest of the nation.

Since the 2022 state election, there are now just under 50,000 more South Australians in work than there were in March 2022. Really pleasingly, 52 per cent of these, or 25,000 of those jobs, are full-time jobs. The unemployment rate is 1.7 percentage points lower than what it was at the last election, and there are 15,000 fewer people unemployed than there were only two years ago.

Really pleasingly, out of those 50,000 additional jobs across the South Australian economy, just under 20,000 are spread across the professional, scientific and technical services; manufacturing; agriculture, forestry and fishing; and transport, postal and warehousing industry sectors. So, increasingly, the jobs that are being created across our economy are in more highly skilled, higher-wage areas, which is really positive news.

Shortly after those job vacancy statistics were released, we also had the export figures released, where South Australia's exports through the year are at a near record of $17.9 billion. Exports to China are up $987 million, or 38 per cent. Exports to Thailand are up $365 million—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Hartley is warned. The Treasurer has the call.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Exports to Indonesia are up by a quarter of a billion dollars and exports to the United States of America are up by a quarter of a billion dollars. That is really positive. A big contributor was barley exports: $401 million, or 69 per cent up. Petroleum and petroleum products were up a quarter of a billion dollars and iron ore and concentrates were up $143 million. These are the reasons why the ANZ Stateometer reports that South Australia is the only economy consistently outperforming the rest of the nation since the pandemic.

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