Page 1151 - Week 04 - Wednesday, 7 May 2014
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term, there is no doubt that the uncertain economic outlook and the Liberal Party’s cuts to Canberra will demand a short-term focus on supporting the territory economy by generating jobs and providing opportunities for new investment in our city.
An important principle of the government’s response has been to continue to provide services that our community deserves and expects. Our approach is in stark contrast to what you see in other states and territories where there has been slash-and-burn budgeting, a significant cut to the level of public services in conservative states, needlessly and unnecessarily cutting vital support to the most vulnerable in our community. Our approach is different; we are supporting the community through a range of programs, especially programs targeted at supporting our most vulnerable citizens.
We have also been getting on with the job of delivering new jobs into this economy through our business development strategy. The strategy outlines a vision for growth in the ACT economy, building on a long-term commitment from the government to continue to support the private sector to create jobs. The business development strategy was developed in close consultation with the local business community and has resulted in a number of actions that improve engagement between government and business even further. We continue our work in red tape reduction and in supporting local, small and medium size enterprises by giving them a positive weighting when tendering for government contracts. We have continued to cut payroll tax, making the territory the lowest taxing jurisdiction in the country for small and medium-sized businesses.
The government has also been proactively working in partnership with key sectors of the economy—most particularly the Chief Minister’s work in the higher education portfolio, in ITC and in tourism development. We have established the Canberra innovation network. Through the 2020 tourism strategy, Visit Canberra is working to a target of an economic contribution of $2.5 billion from the tourism industry into the ACT economy by 2020.
The work the Chief Minister has undertaken with the higher education institutions in the study Canberra initiative continues to build on the significant export growth that we are seeing in our higher education sector.
Jobs growth has been strong over the past decade. The territory had the lowest unemployment rate in the country at 3.4 per cent. Our participation rate is the second highest in the nation. We currently have an all-time record number of people in employment in the territory—more than 215,000. Over the last decade 35,800 new jobs have been added in our economy. So, on average, 10 new jobs have been created every day in Canberra for 10 years—10 new jobs every day for 10 years. More than 6,000 of those new jobs have been created in the education, the science and technology and the ICT sectors, which now employ more than 43,000 people.
We have a strong and growing tourism sector. Employment in the sector is growing faster than the national rate. Over the last decade 3,000 new jobs have been added there, an annual growth rate of 2.3 per cent. The sector is growing at more than twice the national rate and now directly employs nearly 15,000 Canberrans.
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