Page 4200 - Week 12 - Wednesday, 23 October 2019
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capita from state and local governments combined increased by 1.6 per cent, except for two states and territories, New South Wales and the ACT, which actually recorded a decrease in taxation per capita. From 2016-17 to 2017-18, taxation per capita actually fell in the ACT and in New South Wales. All other jurisdictions recorded an increase in the context of state and local government taxation.
Of course, we have a narrower revenue base than other jurisdictions and we are undergoing a tax mix switch, which was recommended by the Henry tax review, through a tax reform agenda. We need to continue to deliver public services and meet the infrastructure needs of our fast growing city. This means more and improved schools, more teachers, more teacher assistants, more nurses, more doctors, more police officers, more firefighters—more people who work in the public sector to make our lives better.
At this point in our city’s history, we are experiencing unprecedented levels of both population and economic growth. I will take the opportunity this morning to talk about that. But clearly, with our population growing by more than 8,000 people a year, this is adding to not only the tax base but also the consumption of government services. That is not unexpected. It is what is occurring in every jurisdiction across this nation, with the exception of the Northern Territory, which currently is experiencing a population decline.
I want to look particularly at the broader data for the ACT economy that does underpin the reasons why our revenue base is growing. Our economy is now worth more than $40 billion annually, as measured by gross state product. This means that our economy is now larger than Tasmania’s and it is larger than the Northern Territory’s. This is not surprising in the case of the NT because we have double their population. But we have a larger economy than Tasmania, which still to this point—although we are fast catching them—has a larger population than us. This reflects the strength of the ACT economy, which has been growing at a rate of four per cent per annum, well above the national rate.
The value of exports of goods and services from our economy rose from $1.59 billion in 2015 to $2.23 billion in 2017-18, an increase of 40 per cent. We have higher average disposable income, at $91,000. That is $43,000 above the Australian average. We have had very strong population growth of over 7,000 people a year each year since 2011. Our city’s population is forecast to reach half a million by 2030.
There are 3,200 new businesses operating in the territory now. That is 3,200 more than there were four years ago. There are more than 16,000 new jobs in the economy than there were four years ago. Our unemployment rate, at 3.5 per cent, is the lowest of all Australian jurisdictions.
As we look at growth in the ACT, as benchmarked against the Australian average, we are exceeding that in terms of gross state product. We are exceeding that in terms of growth in international trade and services. Our services exports were at 10.6 per cent in the 2017-18 year. Australia-wide that growth was seven per cent. We have seen private investment grow through the year by 2.1 per cent in the ACT, whereas it has
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