Page 3799 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 29 October 2014

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(b) second worst performing jurisdiction in the country for retail spending;

(d) worst performing jurisdiction in the country for decade-average rate level unemployment; and

(e) second worst performing jurisdiction in the country for construction work; and

(2) calls on the Government to:

(a) stop talking down the economy, and depressing business and consumer confidence, which has in part led to the outcomes in paragraph (1);

(b) capitalise on the full potential of our city, and take direct action to diversify the ACT economy;

(d) table in the Assembly by the last sitting day in February 2015, the Government’s direct action initiatives to diversify the economy and measure the savings to businesses from the Government’s red tape initiative.

Thank you, Treasurer, for being here at the start of the presentation; it is lovely to have you in the chamber.

Mr Assistant Speaker, we are well aware that recently CommSec released their state of the states report for 2014. A summary of the outcomes is made available and makes some interesting reading. The most salient point before we get to the detail is that this time a year ago we were the second best economy in the country and we are now the second worst.

I am sure that much will be made of the Abbott government as we progress through this, but the point is that if you look at the underlying data that supports the report, it is because we have not diversified our economy and we have maintained such enormous reliance on federal spending over the last 13 years that we find ourselves in this position.

I remind members that in 2001, 60 per cent of employment in the ACT was in the private sector. It is now approximately 50 per cent. That has happened under Labor. It has happened because they took their eye off the ball. We know about the disastrous budget for business in this town in 2006 when just about all the business programs were cut and tourism funding was smashed by a government that thought it was business welfare. Yet that same business welfare last year, during the centenary year, was used to bring lots of events, for an economic impact that I think everybody favoured. We see it again. The minister was talking yesterday about the summer of cricket. Apparently summer now goes for about six months, according to Mr Barr. We do have some exciting cricket coming—and not just cricket but soccer events. This is

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