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Legislative Assembly for the ACT: 2004 Week 10 Hansard (Wednesday, 25 August 2004) . . Page.. 4177 ..

The motion reflects the extent to which this is an absolute nonsense. What sort of a nonsense motion is that? In caucus this morning we joked about it—“and, of course, this government is to blame for the fact that it hasn’t rained; this government is to blame for the drought”. And, lo and behold, Mrs Dunne stands up and says with a straight face, “They’re to be blamed.” It is now our fault that it has not rained! It sums up the nonsense of the motion. It descended to the farce of one of the members of the Liberal Party coming down here and saying, “Yes, and they could have done more to make it rain.”

It is a nonsense. It indicates the absolute desperation of the Leader of the Opposition and his colleagues—as Mr Corbell said—to gain some traction, some credibility. The difficulty they have is the strength of not just the ACT economy but also of the ACT and our community, and the facts around all the indicators that we use in relation to how we measure how our community is performing.

Look at the facts. The economy is very strong—it is in very good shape—and all the major indicators show continued strong growth. Look at gross state product—some of the vital indicators of how well this community and this economy are performing. Gross state product, which is the measure of the value added by the economic production in state and territories, grew by 2.9 per cent in the ACT in 2002-03—higher than the national average. State final demand rose in the March quarter to 4.4 per cent higher than the same quarter in 2003. Retail trade rose by 3.6 per cent to $322.8 million turnover for the year to June 200—2.4 per cent higher than the year before. All jurisdictions record an increase. In the ACT we had the second highest increase in retail trade.

Unemployment in the ACT is 3.3 per cent. The national unemployment rate rose to 5.6 per cent; we dropped to 3.3 per cent. We have the lowest unemployment rate in Australia. During July the ANZ job advertisements in the ACT fell; nationally job advertisements fell. These figures contrast with monitoring by ACT Treasury, which show a rise of 13 per cent in job ads in July. In July 2004 there was a 13 per cent increase in job advertisements. Average weekly earnings in the ACT are the highest by far in Australia. The wage cost index rose. The consumer price index rose by only 0.6. Housing finance for individual investors in the ACT is as strong as anywhere in Australia.

The indicators go on and on and on: the residential property market, building approvals, tourism, new vehicle sales and the Hudson report. Look at all the indicators. Look at all of the economic indicators in terms of how this community is performing and how it has performed under this government. Look at why it is that we still have the strongest economy, the lowest unemployment rates, the highest rates of growth, and the strongest demand in the retail and housing sectors of anywhere in Australia. This particular community is booming. Not just is it booming, but also it is happy and it performs well on all the indicators.

Issues are being raised in relation to health and education. Look at the statistics we have in relation to what the people of Canberra think about Canberra—what they think about living here—and what life is like in the Australian Capital Territory. Motions such as this ignore what the people of Canberra think. What do the people of Canberra think about Canberra? Do they walk around with this gloom and this doom—this whinging, carping, whining nonsense that we see reflected through this motion? No, they do not. They do

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