Page 1784 - Week 06 - Wednesday, 4 June 2014
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2012-13. The construction sector grew from 9,000 jobs or thereabouts in 1995-96 to over 14,000 jobs in 2012-13. And the strongest performer over the period between 1995-96 and 2012-13 was the tourism and hospitality sector, which grew from 4,500 jobs in 1995-96 to 11,500 jobs in 2012-13 and is still growing.
We now have 43,000 people in our territory employed across the education, scientific and technical and ICT sectors, with more than 6,000 new jobs created in those areas in the last decade. Tourism, incorporating the accommodation and food sectors, has been growing at an average annual rate of 2.3 per cent, well above the national average. These are all areas where this economy has clear strengths and where employment has been growing at phenomenal rates.
Prior to the federal budget, the ACT economy recorded its all-time record level of employment, Mr Smyth, and it recorded growth across the board. All sectors contributed to growth.
What is exciting about this jobs growth has been the range of innovative companies that have been driving it—firms like Aspen Medical, the Australian exporter of the year. Datapod have just won a major contract to export their technology to the US. There are firms like Windlab Systems, Lithicon, Bearcage, Seeing Machines, CEA Technologies and QuintessenceLabs, all of whom have won various awards in the export of, particularly, services.
The services sector in this economy has nearly doubled the value of its exports over the last six or seven years. For a large part of the 1990s and through into the mid-2000s, we were exporting between $600 million and $800 million of services each year. In 2012-13, it was $1.3 billion. Some 2½ per cent of the nation’s exports in services came from this small economy. Everyone—the Canberra Business Council, the chamber of commerce, the Exporters Network and everyone associated with export—has verified and said on the public record on numerous occasions how much more diverse this economy is in 2014-15 than it was in 1996.
Another part of this story, though—Mr Smyth might even agree with me on this—is that we are a young city. We have been around for 100 years, for the first 75 of those essentially as a protectorate of the federal government. They did not have a real focus on our economic development. The city was here to meet their needs. It is only in the last 25 years, when we have had self-government and our own focus on our own economic development, that we have seen significant gains for this economy. We are 200 years behind some other cities in Australia, some other states, in terms of having a focus on our own economic development, because we have only had self-government for 25 years.
What has been phenomenal, and what I am very proud of, is efforts, particularly in the last five or six years, through partnerships with the Business Council, the establishment of the Exporters Network and the establishment of the Canberra innovation network in recent months, with the growth we have seen and the potential that is there for it.
In two weeks time I will be leading what I understand to be the largest ever ACT trade delegation to Singapore. It has both an ICT and a tourism focus. The ACT Brumbies
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