Page 28 - Week 01 - Tuesday, 8 February 2022
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
Pacific with an AAA credit rating: not just the only one in Australia, Madam Speaker; the only one in the Asia Pacific. This means the ACT government’s balance sheet is able to provide countercyclical public investment that has been required over the past two years to buffer the enormous economic shock that we have experienced, that our fellow Australians have experienced and that has been a global phenomenon.
Throughout the pandemic our priorities have remained the same: ensuring support for the most vulnerable in our community, investing in our public health response and protecting local jobs. The territory government has provided more than half a billion dollars in additional health funding, allocated nearly half a billion dollars in targeted support for small and medium businesses, and more than $200 million in additional funding for education and skills.
This public investment has delivered incredible economic outcomes. The ACT’s real gross state product growth for fiscal year 2019-20 was 3.7 per cent, and in the peak of the pandemic in fiscal year 2020-21 we still grew by 2.8 per cent. Whilst household consumption fell 2.6 per cent in 2019-20, it was more than offset by a 7.7 per cent growth in the following fiscal years. Household consumption then bounced back in fiscal year 2020-21. It did so off the back of greater consumer confidence. That comes from effective pandemic management.
The beginning of the 2021-22 financial year was difficult. The most significant impact on our economy and how we function as a society was through the nine weeks of lockdown from August to October last year. As we took measures that allowed us to transition our city out of lockdown as safely as possible, the recovery commenced. During that period of lockdown we went from a vaccination rate of half of our population aged 12 years and older having had a first dose to 77 per cent having had two doses by the conclusion of the lockdown.
Coming out of that lockdown, as expected, retail trade turnover in the ACT increased by nearly 20 per cent, 19.2 per cent, in the month of November, to $616 million. That was the highest monthly outcome ever recorded in the history of the Australian Capital Territory, higher than the three-year average across pandemic and non-pandemic months, which was $544 million.
It was pleasing to see in the data released in the last seven days that this record spend was sustained through December, with $596.6 million spent at ACT businesses during that month. That was the fourth highest month of retail trade ever experienced, the other three months being in calendar year 2021. So it is pleasing to see that, despite the pandemic, retail trade figures have grown each year from $6.14 billion pre-pandemic, in 2019, to $6.67 billion in 2020 and then growing again in 2021 to $6.78 billion—each all-time records for expenditure at ACT businesses.
However, we know that the record spend in 2021 was not uniform and that some areas of the economy have benefited more from that record spend than others. Reflecting this, the government recently extended existing business support measures to targeted industry sectors, such as food service businesses and tourism and hospitality.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video