Page 118 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 December 2016
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Madam Speaker, fellow members of the Assembly, I rise today to table an important motion on the future of Canberra. It calls on all members to show bipartisan support for maintaining a strong ACT economy. Since our election in October the ACT has continued to show strong economic performances over a range of data sets and indicators. It is one of the strongest in Australia. The government is performing well, and bipartisan support on continuing the essential work on tax reform, red tape reduction and infrastructure investment is important to continue this growth.
This contrasts greatly with the coalition federal government’s budget situation and an economy that could be heading to a recession. As such, the ACT economy should be held as a shining light of how to deal with constant, Liberal-led job cuts. The Assembly should note these strong performances, which I will go into in a few moments, and urge the territory to maintain its AAA credit rating whilst continuing to support local jobs growth in all sectors of the ACT economy. As a Labor MLA I will always work towards ensuring there are growth, opportunity and fairness in our community. This particularly includes economic stability and opportunity for all Canberrans across all trades and industries.
The most recent example of the ACT economy’s strength came last week when state final demand figures showed the ACT economy grew by 6.4 per cent over the last 12 months. State final demand is a measure of the overall demand in the economy and a solid way to measure how a local economy is travelling. The dollar figure growth in our economy is 955 million over 12 months. This is the highest of any jurisdiction in Australia. It is a similar situation with gross state product, which increased by 3.4 per cent over the past year. This is more than double the 2014-15 result. It is proof our economy has weathered the storm from the commonwealth government’s job cuts because of the work this government has done to diversify our economy.
A strong economy means strong job creation in all sectors of industry. Employment across the ACT grew by nearly 8,000 jobs over the last 12 months. I am not an economist, I have never pretended to be, but I know what a strong economy does for the people of Canberra. It creates jobs. It pays people’s mortgages. It keeps businesses being able to pay their rent. It keeps businesses wanting to employ and train the next generation. Our unemployment rate is 3.4 per cent, the lowest in Australia.
The Barr government is creating jobs, whether in city-defining infrastructure projects such as light rail or through significant investment in our higher education sector. People in Canberra are happy. This is why they re-elected the Barr government in October, with a larger majority than previously. This is why they are spending more at our shops. They have confidence in the direction the local economy is going. Retail trade in the ACT grew by 8.3 per cent last year. That equates to more staff at local grocery shops, more small businesses growing and more opportunities for innovation for Canberrans.
Commercial and residential building approvals grew significantly last year as businesses and investors saw the government’s strong economic plan and voted accordingly at the ballot box. But this is more than people liking what they see. It is about the plumber who can readily find work or the plasterer who can feed her family. It is about helping working Canberrans with their everyday lives.
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