Page 4202 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2019
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significant because, as we all know, having a job is the best way out of poverty. It is the best way to provide opportunity for yourself and for your family.
This very high level of employment activity is spilling over into the retail economy. In August 2019 the ACT recorded well above Australian average growth in retail trade, both monthly and through the year. The 1.9 per cent growth in retail trade in August was the largest monthly growth since December 2015 and the highest growth rate of any state or territory. Through-the-year growth in ACT retail trade turnover has been positive for five years. I repeat that: through-the-year retail trade turnover has been positive for five years up to August 2019.
As we delve into the detail of that, we see increases in consumption across a range of areas that are contributing not only to the territory’s economic growth but also to the growth of many sectors of the territory economy in the retail trade, particularly as it relates to food retailing, household goods, cafes, restaurants and takeaway food services—all areas that are big employers within our economy.
The one area of consumption that I am pleased to see has been reducing is that year on year there was an 8.2 per cent reduction in the consumption of cigarettes and tobacco. We are, however, increasing our consumption of alcoholic beverages, which is a factor that has been identified by KPMG as one area where our resilience as a community has been reducing. We have come out on top of their regional capacity index by a long way in terms of our economy’s capacity to survive and bounce back from big shocks to the economy. We do so because we consistently achieve very high levels of educational attainment, high life expectancy and high female participation in the labour force and have comparatively moderate levels of household poverty.
The one thing the authors of this report identified was that Canberra men are drinking more and on average are dying slightly younger than they did five years ago. Life expectancy for men has gone backwards from 81.7 years to 81.1 years and during this time there has been an increase in the number of men’s deaths caused by alcoholic liver disease, diseases of the digestive system, and mental and behavioural disorders. This is tied to alcohol consumption in the main. It is obviously something that we will need to focus on in the context of our work on overall wellbeing for our community.
I want to highlight in the two minutes that remain to me that the ACT economy is growing faster than the economies of any other state or territory. We are seeing record numbers of international and domestic visitors to our territory, all of which is fuelling strong levels of economic activity. When we see this strong level of economic activity, combined with very strong levels of population growth, what we are seeing is that flowing through into increased revenues.
Of course, on the other side of this equation, increased population and the ageing of the population put more pressure on the demand side in terms of government services. We are seeing that in our health system, in our community services system, in our education system and in all of the services that both a combined local and state government needs to respond to.
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