STATE ECONOMY
544. Mr T.J. HEALY to the Premier:
Before I begin, I acknowledge the
students from Nedlands Primary School in the public gallery today, and I do so
on behalf of the member for Nedlands, who is a former student of Nedlands
Primary School.
Mr J.R. Quigley: So am I!
The SPEAKER: And so is the
Attorney General.
Mr T.J. HEALY: I acknowledge the Attorney General
also!
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's commitment to delivering a strong economy, supporting
business and driving more employment opportunities across the state.
(1) Can the Premier update the house
on how the Western Australian economy is leading the nation?
(2) Can the
Premier outline to the house how the government is working to address the
challenge of attracting more skilled workers to Western Australia?
Mr M.
McGOWAN replied:
I thank the member for the question.
I acknowledge the students from Nedlands Primary School and also acknowledge
the vast improvement in academic outcomes over the last six decades and the
quality of the students!
(1)–(2) When
this government came to office in 2017, the economy was in recession,
unemployment was high and we had record
deficits and record debt. We worked very hard to turn all that around over our
time in office. Earlier this week, Western Australia's
unemployment rate fell to 3.1 per cent. It is the lowest unemployment rate of
all the states and below the national average of 3.5 per cent. Our female
unemployment rate has declined to 2.8 per cent. Our participation rate is the
highest of all the states of Australia.
Incredibly, the increase in Western Australia's employment in the last
month has been in full-time work. All up, around 167 000 jobs have been
created since this government came to office. Our careful management of the
finances, the economy and COVID has brought significant benefits to the people
of Western Australia.
I attended the Jobs and Skills Summit
in Canberra earlier this month, and was pleased to participate in achieving
some of the great outcomes in migration, the role of international students in
the workforce, funding the visa backlog and making more places available in our
training system for Australians. We also
made some changes to our contribution to the migration scheme, including
waiving the $200 application fee, halving the requirement for an
employment contract from 12 to six months and easing some of the work experience requirements. We also secured an
increase in the allocation of places in the commonwealth government's
state nominated migration program.
We have invested enormously in TAFE
and made it far more affordable for Western Australians, and that is no doubt
contributing to the opportunities for Western Australians to take up the
enormous number of job opportunities in Western Australia. Western Australia is
the strongest state in the nation. We have the strongest economy, we have the
strongest set of finances and we have the most robust economy, and that is
because this government set this state on the right pathway.