Unemployment Figures

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:55): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills a question relating to unemployment in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: On Tuesday 5 August, the minister, in answering a question on ANZ job ads, ducked and weaved between monthly and yearly statistics and newspaper and internet figures to attempt to paint a picture that suggested that South Australia was part of a national trend. In doing so, she clearly ignored the words of the ANZ report itself, which said:

Newspaper job advertising is trending comfortably higher in a number of states, particularly in New South Wales and Victoria. However, the trend remains quite weak in ACT and South Australia.

Notably, South Australia and the ACT are the only two jurisdictions with Labor governments in Australia. My questions are:

1. Can the minister explain why the yearly trend for negative job ads for South Australia, at 38 per cent negative, is the worst of any state or territory in Australia and more than double the average of other states?

2. Can the minister explain why, for the month of July, South Australia had almost double the rate of decline of the next worst performing jurisdiction, the Labor jurisdiction in the ACT, and more than five times the decline of Tasmania and more than 56 times the decline of Queensland and New South Wales?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:57): I thank the honourable member for his questions. I refer him to today's monthly employment figures that have came out and note that South Australia was the only state to have a drop in headline unemployment. We are very pleased to see that we were the only jurisdiction to have a drop in headline unemployment.

We are also pleased to see that there was a large drop in youth unemployment as well, which is a very pleasing result, and also that the participation rate remains stable and reasonably strong at 62.5 per cent, which, of course, indicates a degree of confidence in employment job prospects, and that, in fact, we have had nine consecutive months of increasing full-time employment, at an average of nearly 800 jobs per month. Although we are very cautious in the way we interpret these figures—these monthly figures have a great deal of volatility to them, they bounce about—nevertheless, we are very pleased to see these monthly figures trend in that particular way.

We see that this government strongly prioritises jobs. We have a jobs plan that aims to stimulate the economy, to encourage investment, to grow business and, of course, to also build a skilled workforce. We have a plan that is focusing on accelerating and transforming our manufacturing sector—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: She hasn’t given up; she is only halfway through her answer.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: She has every right to answer the question in silence. The honourable minister.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Thank you, Mr President. We have a jobs plan that aims to accelerate and transform our manufacturing sector into a more advanced manufacturing sector through a number of initiatives—the supporting of clusters and suchlike. We also have a plan to accelerate significant infrastructure projects to help create jobs during that transition and help lift productivity. We have the creation of a new Jobs Accelerator Fund, we have a retraining program for displaced automotive workers, and a number of initiatives. The 2014-15 state budget included more than—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Maher, please show respect to the Leader of the Government in the house, please. The honourable minister.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Thank you, Mr President. Our 2014-15 state budget included $10 billion towards productivity infrastructure growth, infrastructure such as roads and rail, to help boost our economy and create jobs. We have seen the state government recently approve the Rex Minerals application to build an $850 million open cut copper, gold and iron ore mine on Yorke Peninsula, again hundreds of jobs for the construction stage and also ongoing.

Mitsubishi recently announced that it will establish a diesel import terminal at Port Bonython, a $110 million investment in South Australia anticipated to create 150-odd jobs. The Adelaide Airport authority recently announced a massive expansion of a new terminal and hotel, likely to create thousands of new jobs. We see ALDI looking at investing $300 million to create 50 new stores with about 900 permanent employees. Masters plan to invest. We see the Brickworks Marketplace development, a $65 million investment. BP is announcing a $138 million contract to Bristow Helicopters. We see the opening up of new Caltex service stations. We see expansions and additions to companies like Coles, Jetstar, On The Run, Tindo Solar, Hewlett-Packard, Hills—the list goes on and on. I could spend the rest of question time outlining the new projects and investments to be made here in South Australia that will generate business and new jobs.

Of course, the other element of our strategy is that we have developed detailed plans for jobs and we have supported this through a raft of measures to help grow business. We see initiatives such as increases in payroll tax concessions, reforming WorkCover—an estimated $180 million in savings to businesses—and building a skilled workforce. I have spoken on those initiatives in this place time and time again. Supporting skilled migration and providing more help to business to win government work are recently announced initiatives, and, of course, the new private sector development coordination role of the chief executive of Premier and Cabinet to assist in lodging projects valued over $3 million.

As I said, we have put in place a raft of measures to assist business, to help them improve their confidence, to help them grow their business, and also to help attract new businesses here. Why? It's for jobs—jobs, jobs, jobs. That's what this government is about. We are about creating job opportunities, about growing our economy and about creating jobs.