Page 120 - Week 01 - Wednesday, 14 December 2016
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It can and should be said, of course, that we are the beneficiary of considerable commonwealth expenditure and in return for this spending here in the ACT I believe that Canberra as a city and Canberrans as people deliver a great service to the nation in the form of the public service, including the defence force. Any honest assessment of the ACT’s economic health should acknowledge the commonwealth’s role.
This motion highlights that growth in economic activity, as measured by state final demand, is the highest in the nation. Something that was missing from the leader’s speech is that state final demand is primarily comprised of commonwealth government expenditure—about 60 per cent in fact—and in the last five years commonwealth expenditure has increased by about 25 per cent. That is one of the things which lie behind our healthy condition of state final demand: a 25 per cent increase in commonwealth expenditure relative to the ACT. We have to acknowledge that. Of course we welcome the investment in the ACT. Why would we not welcome investment in the ACT?
The difference is that, according to the picture which is being painted by the Chief Minister, the commonwealth has been cutting expenditure in the ACT. It is quite the opposite. Over the last five years it has increased by 25 per cent. That is a massive increase, especially when you consider that that makes up 60 per cent of our state final demand. That is a big portion of a big percentage, meaning it has had a very positive impact on our economy.
The other major driver of the ACT economy is business. Mr Barr and his government seem to think that they are the only drivers in the economy and they think they are the only ones that seem to create any opportunities. But it is enterprising people that go about their daily lives making things, delivering services, that really contribute to our economy enormously. Whilst there are many indicators in the economy that are encouraging, it is important that we acknowledge that there is room for improvement and much of this improvement requires decisions which the government is unwilling to make.
As I mentioned earlier, we have had major reports showing that we are stagnating with regards to literacy and numeracy, and we cannot get complacent with regard to education. We hear the government talk all the time about education being the future, whether that be vocational or tertiary. Of course it is but we need to make sure that we actually are moving ahead rather than stagnating.
Despite spending far more per student than any other state, with exception of the Northern Territory, our results are very similar to those of Victoria. We also do not have the tyranny of distance that some other jurisdictions have. Whilst Victoria’s economies of geography are somewhat better than those of other jurisdictions, ours in the ACT is better yet. To that end we should be able to drive some efficiencies from the economics of population density.
Education is a fundamental driver of economic prosperity and we must keep looking to our education results so that we can make sure that we are investing wisely. If we do have declining results in reading, maths and science over a long period, then we do
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