Page 3034 - Week 10 - Wednesday, 14 August 2013
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video
As the shadow treasurer leaves the chamber, it is interesting to see where this employment growth has occurred. The industry employment quarterly data for the territory, which was updated in May 2013, shows that the bulk of this employment growth has occurred in the private sector, which has experienced a 3.2 per cent increase in employment in that period. The public sector has only grown by 0.3 per cent in the 12 months to May 2013. There are 3,408 additional jobs in the private sector and 309 additional jobs in the public sector.
The growth has come in areas of construction, professional, scientific and technical services and administrative and support services, in the main, but there has also been a positive contribution to employment growth in retail, hiring and real estate services, in education and training, in art and recreational services, as well as some private sector jobs growth in the category of safety. In the retail trade, there are 250 additional jobs. There are 15 in agriculture, forestry and fishing. Admittedly, that is not a strong area of employment within the territory economy, nonetheless, it is pleasing to see employment growth in that area.
Overall, the private sector now makes up 51.1 per cent of employment in the territory, and it has been able to achieve that level of growth without there just being a straight switch from the public sector. We saw historically, going back to the election of the Howard government in the early 1990s, essentially a whole bunch of people sacked from the public sector or their jobs outsourced. It was just the same people doing the same work, contracting to government rather than undertaking work within the commonwealth government. At that time you saw this split between private and public employment shift to 60 per cent private, 40 per cent public.
But that quickly reversed by 1999, with the commonwealth government bringing back in a number of the positions that it previously outsourced only a few years earlier. And with the very strong growth in public sector employment in the territory over the last 15 years in particular, we have seen the trend move closer to balance—50 per cent public employment and 50 per cent private employment. But in the last little period, the growth has largely come in the private sector in those areas that I identified. This reflects policy changes the territory government has made, in particular, increasing the payroll tax threshold, and our business development strategy. And it is clear that there has been a response from that, and that is reflected in this data.
Dr Bourke is right in highlighting, as part of this coming budget and, indeed, in last year’s budget, a series of measures aimed at building a stronger economy. And we are seeing the evidence of that in the ABS data.
The motion also talks of increased support payments, rebates and new initiatives that are part of the government’s targeted assistance strategy, and I outlined those in detail in question time today. But just to reiterate, the budget provides a range of concessions for households in energy and utilities, general rates, fire and emergency services, drivers licence, motor vehicle registration and public transport, and we are particularly pleased in this budget to be able to lower the age of eligibility for the ACTION gold card to 70. That is an important reform that we are pleased to support in this year’s budget.
Next page . . . . Previous page . . . . Speeches . . . . Contents . . . . Debates(HTML) . . . . PDF . . . . Video