STATE ECONOMY —
2020–21 STATE BUDGET
802. Mrs L.M. O'MALLEY to the Premier:
On
behalf of the member for Southern River, I would like to acknowledge the
student councillors from Caladenia Primary School who are in the Speaker's
gallery today.
I refer to the McGowan Labor
government's determination in keeping Western Australia safe and
strong. Can the Premier outline to the house how this government's
strong response to COVID-19 is supporting our economy and helping create jobs,
and can the Premier advise the house how the state budget handed down last week
will continue to support Western Australians, particularly young Western Australians,
in finding work?
Mr M. McGOWAN
replied:
I thank the member for Bicton for the question. Today's
job figures are a credit to all Western Australians and Western Australian businesses and to the Western Australian workforce.
It is a credit to their response to COVID-19 and their hard work in following the rules that have been put in place.
It has allowed the Western Australian economy to be more open and free
and to have a greater degree of liberalisation than any other economy in
Australia. Indeed, on many economic indicators, Western Australia is now in a better
position than when we arrived in government. Today's job figures show
that there are now 49 500 more Western Australians in work than when we came to
government. As we know, when we came to government, the last government had the
state in recession. The state is not in recession, even though we are in a once-in-a-hundred-years
pandemic. Since the height of the pandemic back
in April and May, 75 900 jobs have been recovered. The unemployment rate is
currently at 6.7 per cent, which is the lowest of all states. That is a great
achievement by the people of this state. When the last government was in
office, without a pandemic, unemployment hit 6.6 per cent in Western Australia.
The youth unemployment rate is lower than when we came to government in Western
Australia. As we know, the unemployment rate in February was 5.2 per cent—the
lowest it had been since May 2015 and the third lowest unemployment rate in the
country. We have recovered a vast majority of the jobs lost during COVID and we
now have the lowest unemployment rate of any
state in Australia. The government is continuing through our recovery plan to
support growth and jobs in Western Australia and to keep Western Australia
safe and strong. We are supporting Western Australians to get back into TAFE
and training across our state. We have undertaken the largest TAFE capital works
program in Western Australian history; that is our $167 million investment in
upgrading TAFEs around the state. We have provided
support for apprentices and trainees in Western Australia's building
construction industry, re-engagement initiatives in defence and across
the board. On top of that, when we came to office, we froze TAFE fees. More recently, we have actually cut TAFE fees by up to
72 per cent in a range of courses across the state to get people back
into training. It is having remarkable success, with enrolments increasing by
around 20 per cent across the state. Of course, when the last government was in
office, what happened with TAFE?
Some course fees went up
by more than 500 per cent under the last Minister for Training and Workforce
Development, who is now the opposition leader.
Mrs L.M. Harvey interjected.
Mr M. McGOWAN: It does not resonate?
The opposition leader said that it was not true that course
fees went up by 500 per cent. Between 2013 and 2016, an advanced diploma of
building surveying went up in cost by 787 per cent to $11 000. An advanced
diploma of engineering technology (electrical) went up by 778 per cent to $10 999.
A diploma of nursing went up by 409 per cent to $9 467. The diploma in early
childhood education went up by 302 per cent to $10 075. In fact, there are so
many courses we could not fit them into a dorothy dix question on the number of
courses that went up by these amounts. The opposition leader says it is not
true. The facts are there for everyone to see that when she was Minister for
Training and Workforce Development, course costs in important courses like
building surveying, engineering technology and nursing went up by around or
more than 500 per cent. When she says that it is untrue they went up by 500 per
cent, on one level she is right, because some of them went up by nearly 800 per
cent!
That was the damage done by the last Liberal government to
the training sector in Western Australia, but the great news today is that Western
Australia's jobs are coming back. We have the lowest unemployment rate
of any of the states in the country, and that is a credit to all Western Australians.