CORONAVIRUS —
ECONOMIC RECOVERY
717. Ms S.E. WINTON to the Treasurer:
I refer to Western Australia's
successful response to stopping community transmission of COVID-19 that has allowed
WA to open up its economy more than any other state.
(1) Can the
Treasurer update the house with any new data on how WA's response to
COVID-19 is supporting local jobs?
(2) Can the
Treasurer outline to the house the reasons the Reserve Bank of Australia has
said that WA is leading the country when it comes to economic recovery?
Mr B.S.
WYATT replied:
(1)–(2) I
thank the member for Wanneroo for her question. When we were, as a globe, I guess,
rolling out the response to the coronavirus,
we saw some dramatic economic impacts around the world, and we are starting
to see what that meant. The United Kingdom has 20 per cent contraction, the US,
10 per cent, and some countries are faring much worse. Those countries
important to Australia by way of investment and trade have certainly felt some significant falls, as has Australia. As we have
learnt more about the impact of the coronavirus and the extent of the
restrictions that we have had to impose on the operation of our economy, Western Australia is perhaps the best place on the
planet in respect of how we have responded to the coronavirus. As more
data emerges and more analysis is done, not just in respect of the health
outcomes but in respect of the economic outcomes, if we control the virus and
put health first, that is often clearly the best economic policy as well.
When
the Treasurers have met, we have been briefed by the Governor of the Reserve
Bank, who has made the point that we need to do three things. The first
is income support. The commonwealth more broadly has been doing that through JobKeeper and JobSeeker. The second is
infrastructure support, and that is what the state governments are
broadly doing. The third in general is regulation reform to make it easier for
businesses to invest. The one thing the governor is worried about—he
makes this point time and again in his public commentary—is that we
need to keep people somehow connected to their jobs or to work as quickly as we
possibly can because history has taught us that when these disruptions occur,
we often have quite a high unemployment rate for long periods. That is what we
need to address and that is the focus of our
$5.5 billion recovery plan. We are trying to keep people connected to work.
Certainly, for me, 2021 will be the
key year when the commonwealth's support and, indeed, some of the state
government interventions in the economy, wind back, so we need to focus
on 2021.
It is undisputed that the WA economy
is performing very well; in fact, it is the best performing economy in Australia.
To be honest, Australia is one of the best performing countries on the planet
when it comes to our economic response and
how we are recovering from the impact of those restrictions we had to impose.
Last week, we saw the figures around job creation. We had the largest increase
in jobs in July, with just over 32 000 jobs. Similarly, with aggregate hours
worked et cetera.
Today I was pleased to read the
speech by Guy Debelle, the Deputy Governor of the Reserve Bank of Australia. He
reflected on the national economy, stating —
The strongest recovery has been in
WA. Part of this reflects the turnaround in investment in the resources sector
that was already in train before the onset of the pandemic.
By way of aside, that is undoubtedly
the case. The Premier has outlined in detail how some political leaders were
very keen for the mining sector to also go into hibernation during those early
months of the coronavirus. The deputy governor continued —
There has also been a sharp rebound
in activity in the housing sector in WA boosted by the support from both the
federal and state governments.
Indeed, members would have seen the
Premier's announcement last week around extra money going into our
building bonus policy. It has been so successful, it has been oversubscribed;
that is, Treasury did not expect the level of uptake that came in. It has been
enormously successful. It is delivering those jobs for the tradies in Wanneroo
who want to ensure that they continue to have a pipeline of work.
Today, the payroll jobs data came out
again. It is a new series of data that has been released by the Australian
Bureau of Statistics, basically over the coronavirus pandemic. It highlights
the fact that WA continues to lead the way in payroll jobs data. Broadly, 89 per
cent of the jobs lost since mid-March have been recovered. WA continues to lead
the way in respect of that payroll jobs data.
I will conclude with this point: Western
Australia is leading Australia when it comes to the economic response to the
impact of the coronavirus. This is important for Western Australians and jobs,
member for Wanneroo, but as the Premier just said, it is actually important for
the entire nation. Other Premiers who should know better have critiqued Western
Australia's response. Every single Treasury in Australia benefits from
the WA mining sector and the WA economy because we contribute far more than we
take out of the commonwealth Treasury. That is why we will continue to protect
the hard border despite the calls and the efforts and the innuendo from the
Leader of the Opposition to bring that border down.