❓ Question on Notice regarding the implications of national accounts figures for the WA economy. The Treasurer provides an update, highlighting a transition from investment/construction to production/exports, while acknowledging a slowdown in growth but emphasizing the economy's record size and strong export growth.
AnsweredQoN 212Legislative Assembly
QuestionView source ↗
NATIONAL ACCOUNTS FIGURES
212. Mrs G.J. GODFREY to the Treasurer:
I note that the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the
national accounts figures last week.
Ms M.M. Quirk :
Have you read them?
The
SPEAKER : Member for Girrawheen, I call you to order for the first time.
Mrs
G.J. GODFREY : Could the Treasurer please provide the house with an update
on the implication of those figures for the Western Australian economy?
212. Mrs G.J. GODFREY to the Treasurer:
I note that the Australian Bureau of Statistics released the
national accounts figures last week.
Ms M.M. Quirk :
Have you read them?
The
SPEAKER : Member for Girrawheen, I call you to order for the first time.
Mrs
G.J. GODFREY : Could the Treasurer please provide the house with an update
on the implication of those figures for the Western Australian economy?
AnswerView source ↗
Thanks, member for Belmont. Member for Girrawheen, I suggest
that if she had read them, she would understand them, unlike if you tried to.
Anyway, we will leave that.
Mrs M.H. Roberts interjected.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I
am interested in what happened in the member for Belmont's electorate
on election day. What we saw was in part a swing —
Point of Order
Mrs M.H. ROBERTS :
This point of order is one of relevance. The Treasurer has been asked a
question. He is now going off on a tangent right at the start of his answer.
The
SPEAKER : Right; Treasurer, come back to the answer, please.
Questions without Notice Resumed
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I
will, Mr Speaker, because clearly this matters to the member for Belmont's
constituents—people whom she understands well and has served as a
community representative for many years. They are the sorts of people the
member for Albany thinks the Labor Party should have as members of Parliament. Anyway, we move on, Mr Speaker.
Point of Order
Mrs M.H. ROBERTS : The Treasurer is clearly ignoring your
warning and advice, Mr Speaker.
The SPEAKER : Thank
you, member for Midland. Treasurer, can you answer the question.
Questions without Notice Resumed
Mr T.R. BUSWELL :
Last week the national accounts figures came out —
Mr
D.J. Kelly : Have you got a graph?
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I
have lots of graphs, my friend.
The March quarter national accounts
figures came out —
Several members interjected.
Mr
T.R. BUSWELL : This is very important, Mr Speaker—very important for
the state's economy.
The quarterly national accounts
figures produce the states' measures of state final demand. For members'
information, state final demand is effectively a measure of the size of the
domestic economy; it excludes exports and it excludes imports. Those figures
show that over the last 12 months, growth in state final demand for Western
Australia has plateaued somewhat; it has reached a peak and flattened out. The
reason for that is that there has been a significant decline in the rate of
growth of private sector investment. This is an important point, but it is not
a scary point for the Western Australian economy. It is an important point
because it marks the transition of our state's economy from being one
based around investment and construction to one based around production and
exports. This is a perfectly natural part of the state's economic
cycle.
It is interesting to note that a number of commentators on
the Western Australian economy, particularly those based in the eastern states,
have been quick to try to talk down our state and quick to put the boot in and
try to point out that the state's economy has fallen into an abyss.
Thankfully, Dr Parkinson and Dr Gruen from the federal Treasury had alternative
responses and rightly pointed out that that was the stuff of comic books.
We need to put last week's figures into perspective,
on a couple of fronts. Firstly, over the first nine months of this financial
year, state final demand in Western Australia was $157 billion. That is seven per
cent, or $11 billion, higher than the corresponding period in the preceding
year. Yes, the rate of growth of the economy has definitely slowed, but the
absolute size of the economy is at record levels. The state's economic
pie is as big as it has ever been, measured by state final demand.
The second point to note is that export growth has been
particularly strong, and this reflects the transition in the state's
economy from investment and construction to production and exports. Again, over
the first three quarters of this financial year, exports were up to nearly $97 billion—a
10 per cent increase on the corresponding period in the preceding year.
Just out of interest, I met with the Port Hedland Port
Authority the other day, and to put those figures into realistic perspective,
in May last year, 22.5 million tonnes of iron ore were shipped out of that
port, and in May this year, 27.9 million tonnes were shipped. That is a
significant—25 per cent— increase in tonnages shipped.
Another interesting observation—we will hear some
more about this on Thursday, when the unemployment data comes out—is
that the rate of jobs growth in the state will clearly slow as we move out of
construction and into production. To provide an example, between April 2010 and
April 2011, there were 51 300 jobs created in Western Australia; between April
2011 and April 2012, there were 61 000; and over the last 12 months, that
figure has slowed to 20 000 jobs, and the vast majority of those were created
at the start of that period. We are seeing a transition in the state's
economy and we are seeing a slowdown in employment growth, but overall, state
economic growth will remain strong because exports are strong and because other
sectors of the state economy, such as dwelling investment, are coming on.
The summary of last week's figures is not the summary
that has been put on them by some observers from the east; the summary is of a
natural change in the cyclical nature of the state's economy—a
state economy that is still very strong, in a state that is still a great place
in which to invest, to do business and to work.
that if she had read them, she would understand them, unlike if you tried to.
Anyway, we will leave that.
Mrs M.H. Roberts interjected.
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I
am interested in what happened in the member for Belmont's electorate
on election day. What we saw was in part a swing —
Point of Order
Mrs M.H. ROBERTS :
This point of order is one of relevance. The Treasurer has been asked a
question. He is now going off on a tangent right at the start of his answer.
The
SPEAKER : Right; Treasurer, come back to the answer, please.
Questions without Notice Resumed
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I
will, Mr Speaker, because clearly this matters to the member for Belmont's
constituents—people whom she understands well and has served as a
community representative for many years. They are the sorts of people the
member for Albany thinks the Labor Party should have as members of Parliament. Anyway, we move on, Mr Speaker.
Point of Order
Mrs M.H. ROBERTS : The Treasurer is clearly ignoring your
warning and advice, Mr Speaker.
The SPEAKER : Thank
you, member for Midland. Treasurer, can you answer the question.
Questions without Notice Resumed
Mr T.R. BUSWELL :
Last week the national accounts figures came out —
Mr
D.J. Kelly : Have you got a graph?
Mr T.R. BUSWELL : I
have lots of graphs, my friend.
The March quarter national accounts
figures came out —
Several members interjected.
Mr
T.R. BUSWELL : This is very important, Mr Speaker—very important for
the state's economy.
The quarterly national accounts
figures produce the states' measures of state final demand. For members'
information, state final demand is effectively a measure of the size of the
domestic economy; it excludes exports and it excludes imports. Those figures
show that over the last 12 months, growth in state final demand for Western
Australia has plateaued somewhat; it has reached a peak and flattened out. The
reason for that is that there has been a significant decline in the rate of
growth of private sector investment. This is an important point, but it is not
a scary point for the Western Australian economy. It is an important point
because it marks the transition of our state's economy from being one
based around investment and construction to one based around production and
exports. This is a perfectly natural part of the state's economic
cycle.
It is interesting to note that a number of commentators on
the Western Australian economy, particularly those based in the eastern states,
have been quick to try to talk down our state and quick to put the boot in and
try to point out that the state's economy has fallen into an abyss.
Thankfully, Dr Parkinson and Dr Gruen from the federal Treasury had alternative
responses and rightly pointed out that that was the stuff of comic books.
We need to put last week's figures into perspective,
on a couple of fronts. Firstly, over the first nine months of this financial
year, state final demand in Western Australia was $157 billion. That is seven per
cent, or $11 billion, higher than the corresponding period in the preceding
year. Yes, the rate of growth of the economy has definitely slowed, but the
absolute size of the economy is at record levels. The state's economic
pie is as big as it has ever been, measured by state final demand.
The second point to note is that export growth has been
particularly strong, and this reflects the transition in the state's
economy from investment and construction to production and exports. Again, over
the first three quarters of this financial year, exports were up to nearly $97 billion—a
10 per cent increase on the corresponding period in the preceding year.
Just out of interest, I met with the Port Hedland Port
Authority the other day, and to put those figures into realistic perspective,
in May last year, 22.5 million tonnes of iron ore were shipped out of that
port, and in May this year, 27.9 million tonnes were shipped. That is a
significant—25 per cent— increase in tonnages shipped.
Another interesting observation—we will hear some
more about this on Thursday, when the unemployment data comes out—is
that the rate of jobs growth in the state will clearly slow as we move out of
construction and into production. To provide an example, between April 2010 and
April 2011, there were 51 300 jobs created in Western Australia; between April
2011 and April 2012, there were 61 000; and over the last 12 months, that
figure has slowed to 20 000 jobs, and the vast majority of those were created
at the start of that period. We are seeing a transition in the state's
economy and we are seeing a slowdown in employment growth, but overall, state
economic growth will remain strong because exports are strong and because other
sectors of the state economy, such as dwelling investment, are coming on.
The summary of last week's figures is not the summary
that has been put on them by some observers from the east; the summary is of a
natural change in the cyclical nature of the state's economy—a
state economy that is still very strong, in a state that is still a great place
in which to invest, to do business and to work.
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