Page 691 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 22 February 2012
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enterprise here in the ACT. We do very much look forward to debating the merits of the competing ideas to achieve this and we will be supporting Ms Porter’s motion.
MR BARR (Molonglo—Deputy Chief Minister, Treasurer, Minister for Economic Development and Minister for Tourism, Sport and Recreation) (8.22): I thank Ms Porter very much for bringing this motion on for debate this evening, and I thank members for their contributions so far. It has been one of the more thoughtful debates that we have perhaps had in this place in recent times.
The motion highlights a number of important points that I think all speakers have agreed upon in relation to the relative strength of the ACT economy in the context of Australia, but most particularly in the context of the global economy. All jurisdictions have been impacted by uncertainty. I think this is pretty well accepted.
Banking crises are different from normal, cyclical downturns in economies. Without confidence in the banking system, without money flowing through the economy, as we have witnessed around the world, economic growth is quite severely choked off. It is worth noting that in economic history, recovery from banking crises is slower and more costly. To put some context around this, the global financial crisis saw real GDP contract by 0.7 of a per cent world wide in 2009 and many countries experienced double digit unemployment as a result. This was the first time since the Second World War that the world economy recorded negative growth.
But here in Australia, thanks to decisive action from the commonwealth government, supported by all state and territory governments, Australia avoided recession, and we avoided very high levels of unemployment. And within the national context, the ACT has continued to be one of the best performing jurisdictions in the country. Our state final demand increased by 4.3 per cent in the 2010-11 fiscal year, the second strongest growth in the country, behind only Western Australia. I think we are all aware of the reasons for the phenomenal growth in the economy in the west.
In the 2010-11 fiscal year the ACT’s gross state product grew by 2.8 per cent, again the second strongest growth in the country. We also welcomed an above national average level of new residents to our city, an increase of 1.9 per cent in the 2010-11 fiscal year, again the second highest population growth rate in the country. We recorded the second lowest trend unemployment rate and the highest trend participation rate in 2010-11, and the more recent data has shown that unemployment in the ACT has fallen from four per cent in June to 3.7 per cent now and that the number of people in employment in the territory, at 206,100, is the highest number of people ever in employment in the history of the Australian Capital Territory. That is, I think, something to be proud of.
When Mr Smyth talks about measures of a successful economy, I do not disagree that retail trade is a good indicator, but my number one with a bullet is people in jobs, because if you do not have a job, your capacity to participate in the retail economy is significantly constrained. So employment, I think, has to be the most important factor as we move forward and seek to develop this city in its second century. A focus on employment and a focus on high-quality and sustainable jobs should be a key part of the direction of any government and, I would hope, would be shared across all parties in this Assembly.
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