❓ Treasurer responds to a question about WA employment figures, criticising the Leader of the Opposition's economic commentary and highlighting the state's economic performance, diversification efforts, and capital works programs.
AnsweredQoN 42Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
EMPLOYMENT FIGURES
42. Mr I.M.
BRITZA to the Treasurer:
Over the past few months the
opposition has made conflicting statements about employment and the economy.
Can the minister please update the house on the genuine Western Australian
employment figures and how our state compares with others?
42. Mr I.M.
BRITZA to the Treasurer:
Over the past few months the
opposition has made conflicting statements about employment and the economy.
Can the minister please update the house on the genuine Western Australian
employment figures and how our state compares with others?
AnswerView source ↗
The question is a very good one.
This will show us a couple of themes. First, the Leader of the Opposition, who
aspires to be the leader of the state as Premier, does not have a clue about
the economy and, because of that, he has been getting into the business of
talking it down. When the monthly data for December came out last month, it
showed a pick-up of unemployment in Western Australia. But anybody who has any
remote knowledge about employment data knows that we should not jump on a
month. But the Leader of the Opposition did. He came out and said, ''Horror,
horror! If the unemployment rate goes up, employment growth goes down''.
He condemned the Barnett government for its performance on jobs. When Saul
Eslake, a very respected economist, was on 6PR Drive , he said, ''Listen, big mistake. One month does not
make a trend.'' He also said that if the Leader of the Opposition knew
what he was talking about, he would have looked at the trends of the past six
months or the past year. If he had—it was in the same publication—he
would have found that employment growth in Western Australia over the previous
12 months, including the month of December, was 3.3 per cent, which exceeds
population growth and the growth in the demand for jobs and the supply of
labour. Putting this in context, this was during a period of huge headwinds—lower
commodity prices, a slowing demand in the retail sector and the movement from
construction to production. It was a phenomenal result, yet the Leader of the
Opposition criticised us.
When the job figures came out this month, the Leader of the
Opposition was nowhere to be seen because it was completely the opposite of
what he claimed the month before. In fact, in the month ending January, jobs
growth was 0.4 per cent which, times it by 12, is an average 4.8 per cent. I am
not claiming that that is the trend going forward. But I look over the past
year and given the headwinds that we have felt, that is a phenomenal result. We
have the lowest unemployment rate, the highest participation rate and the
highest employment growth in the nation. It is the highest in the nation! Why?
Craig James, an economist with CommSec, put out a report on the state of the
states and said that the reason—it is not surprising—that
Western Australia's growth is holding up is that as the mining sector
slows and the exchange rate goes down and wages go down, other sectors pick up
the gap, which always happens. It has been a phenomenal pick-up, but there are
reasons for that. Yesterday, we heard about the double-digit growth in
international tourism. Why is that happening? It is happening because of the
policy we put in place to facilitate it and because of this government's
initiative—some of which was funded by debt, which opposition members
criticised. There are 1 200 hotel rooms committed to or under construction in
this state, which is phenomenal. We could not have tourism during the growth
period because there were no beds. Now we have it. We have a capital works
program of a phenomenal nature. Indeed, the top six programs will create 12 000
jobs, but if we put together all the major projects under construction in
Western Australia that are funded by government, that equates to the creation
of 82 000 jobs. Those 82 000 jobs are across health, education, transport,
sport and recreation—you name it! It is phenomenal.
The Leader of the Opposition said that we have not done
enough to diversify international tourism—wrong! He also said that we
have not done enough in health. What kind of zoo does he live in? That is
ridiculous! He says he drives to Parliament House every day from Rockingham—what
about Fiona Stanley Hospital? Is he blind? Does he wear blinkers? That is
ridiculous. In fact, I think we even redeveloped Rockingham hospital. He does
not even know about his own electorate! He also criticised us for not putting
money into technology. He should go to Curtin University because royalties for
regions has allowed us to put a huge amount of money into agriculture. The
story is that despite the headlines—it is tough out there to grow—we
are doing a phenomenal job in job growth. The Leader of the Opposition should
be out there saying, ''Good on ya!'', because what we are doing
is leading to Western Australia being the place to be and is building on our
strength. All the Leader of the Opposition does is bag us.
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Treasurer, you have has 30 seconds to wind this up.
Dr
M.D. NAHAN : The real story is that the Leader of the Opposition does not
have any feel for or knowledge of the key issues facing the state, which are
economic matters. He has no feel for them; in fact, he is all spin. He has been
caught out talking down the economy when he should be talking it up.
This will show us a couple of themes. First, the Leader of the Opposition, who
aspires to be the leader of the state as Premier, does not have a clue about
the economy and, because of that, he has been getting into the business of
talking it down. When the monthly data for December came out last month, it
showed a pick-up of unemployment in Western Australia. But anybody who has any
remote knowledge about employment data knows that we should not jump on a
month. But the Leader of the Opposition did. He came out and said, ''Horror,
horror! If the unemployment rate goes up, employment growth goes down''.
He condemned the Barnett government for its performance on jobs. When Saul
Eslake, a very respected economist, was on 6PR Drive , he said, ''Listen, big mistake. One month does not
make a trend.'' He also said that if the Leader of the Opposition knew
what he was talking about, he would have looked at the trends of the past six
months or the past year. If he had—it was in the same publication—he
would have found that employment growth in Western Australia over the previous
12 months, including the month of December, was 3.3 per cent, which exceeds
population growth and the growth in the demand for jobs and the supply of
labour. Putting this in context, this was during a period of huge headwinds—lower
commodity prices, a slowing demand in the retail sector and the movement from
construction to production. It was a phenomenal result, yet the Leader of the
Opposition criticised us.
When the job figures came out this month, the Leader of the
Opposition was nowhere to be seen because it was completely the opposite of
what he claimed the month before. In fact, in the month ending January, jobs
growth was 0.4 per cent which, times it by 12, is an average 4.8 per cent. I am
not claiming that that is the trend going forward. But I look over the past
year and given the headwinds that we have felt, that is a phenomenal result. We
have the lowest unemployment rate, the highest participation rate and the
highest employment growth in the nation. It is the highest in the nation! Why?
Craig James, an economist with CommSec, put out a report on the state of the
states and said that the reason—it is not surprising—that
Western Australia's growth is holding up is that as the mining sector
slows and the exchange rate goes down and wages go down, other sectors pick up
the gap, which always happens. It has been a phenomenal pick-up, but there are
reasons for that. Yesterday, we heard about the double-digit growth in
international tourism. Why is that happening? It is happening because of the
policy we put in place to facilitate it and because of this government's
initiative—some of which was funded by debt, which opposition members
criticised. There are 1 200 hotel rooms committed to or under construction in
this state, which is phenomenal. We could not have tourism during the growth
period because there were no beds. Now we have it. We have a capital works
program of a phenomenal nature. Indeed, the top six programs will create 12 000
jobs, but if we put together all the major projects under construction in
Western Australia that are funded by government, that equates to the creation
of 82 000 jobs. Those 82 000 jobs are across health, education, transport,
sport and recreation—you name it! It is phenomenal.
The Leader of the Opposition said that we have not done
enough to diversify international tourism—wrong! He also said that we
have not done enough in health. What kind of zoo does he live in? That is
ridiculous! He says he drives to Parliament House every day from Rockingham—what
about Fiona Stanley Hospital? Is he blind? Does he wear blinkers? That is
ridiculous. In fact, I think we even redeveloped Rockingham hospital. He does
not even know about his own electorate! He also criticised us for not putting
money into technology. He should go to Curtin University because royalties for
regions has allowed us to put a huge amount of money into agriculture. The
story is that despite the headlines—it is tough out there to grow—we
are doing a phenomenal job in job growth. The Leader of the Opposition should
be out there saying, ''Good on ya!'', because what we are doing
is leading to Western Australia being the place to be and is building on our
strength. All the Leader of the Opposition does is bag us.
Several members interjected.
The
SPEAKER : Treasurer, you have has 30 seconds to wind this up.
Dr
M.D. NAHAN : The real story is that the Leader of the Opposition does not
have any feel for or knowledge of the key issues facing the state, which are
economic matters. He has no feel for them; in fact, he is all spin. He has been
caught out talking down the economy when he should be talking it up.
Explore WA Government Data
Search the full archive in the free dashboard, or query programmatically via API.
Explore more
Government Gazette
Appointments, regulatory notices, planning changes.
Hansard
Debates, questions, speeches and sentiment.
Tabled Papers
Reports and documents tabled in Parliament.
Committees
Committee profiles and recent reports.
Regulations
Subsidiary legislation with filters and summaries.
Bills
Proposed laws and parliamentary progress.
Acts
Current WA legislation and summaries.
Explanatory Memoranda
Bills with EMs (text/PDF) available.
Members
MP profiles, party breakdown and rankings.
Pollie Rankings
Data-driven rankings across 19 categories.
Amendment Chains
Track how schemes and regulations evolve over time.