Page 448 - Week 02 - Wednesday, 21 February 2018
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(a) over 10 000 new jobs being created in 2017, with 80 percent of these new jobs being full-time;
(b) trend unemployment for the ACT falling to 3.7 percent in December 2017—the lowest of any State or Territory;
(c) the Territory’s population expanding by almost 7 000 people over the past 12 months, on top of the fastest population growth in the country between the 2011 and 2016 census counts;
(d) strong increases in dwelling unit commencements and dwellings financed, with commencements rising 101.2 percent in the year to September 2017 and dwellings financed by owner-occupiers increasing by 26.9 percent in the year to November 2017; and
(e) first home buyers representing 21 percent of total housing loans taken out in November 2017, which is seven percentage points higher than its proportion a year earlier;
(2) further notes the economic data indicating the increased diversification of the ACT economy, including:
(a) strong private sector job growth, as indicated by the 24 percent annual increase in private sector job vacancies as of November 2017, well above the national-average of 17.2 percent;
(b) ACT’s service exports increasing to $1.9 billion for the financial year 2016-17, with education seeing the highest growth of 24.4 percent, the strongest growth rate of any State or Territory; and
(c) the significant increases in tourism activity, with international visitor expenditure growing by 27 percent to $547 million and domestic visitor expenditure increasing to $1.9 billion; and
(3) calls on this Assembly to support Canberra’s diverse growth industries.
All members in this place should agree that a strong economy is one of the most important priorities for any government. It is certainly one of the key priorities of this government. Recent economic data tells a great story. Data from the end of 2017 saw low unemployment in the ACT and an increasingly diverse local economy. Our policies to diversify the economy and ultimately create more jobs are working. This will ensure that the massive cuts to the public service from the federal Liberal government will not have the devastating effect on our economy that has happened in the past. This is particularly important given the federal government’s recent announcement that they will seek to constrain wage growth for federal public servants.
Access to well-paying, secure jobs is a core value of this government. As of December 2017 the ACT had the lowest unemployment rate in the country, at 3.7 per cent. This is well below the national average of 5.4 per cent. Over the past year 10,000 new jobs were created, of which 8,000 are full time—8,000! This is an important point because job security is just as important as the creation of new jobs. Youth unemployment remains below the national average. Canberra’s annual employment growth is currently the strongest it has been in a decade.
This massive increase in employment is a huge achievement of this government and our city. This strong growth comes despite the consistent cuts of the federal Liberal
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