Chief Minister Andrew Barr made his State of the Territory address today.
In 2020, in the midst of the COVID pandemic, we set a goal to recover all the lost jobs and then grow our labour market to achieve 250,000 jobs in the Territory economy by 2025.
Three years on, and a year early, we have hit the goal.
I’m pleased to report that there are now over 265,000 people in work across the Territory.
If the COVID-19 pandemic was ‘unprecedented’ in our lifetimes – then ‘unprecedented’ is also the description to use for the recovery of the ACT’s labour market.
Our jobs growth has been spread across the economy – driven by continued economic growth, strong population growth, the change of federal government last year and a particularly strong recovery in domestic tourism.
And as our population growth continues in the years ahead, so too will our jobs market growth.
The Government has reset our target to grow the total labour market to 300,000 jobs by 2030 – ambitious but achievable.
We can confidently set this goal in part because of our history of sustained economic growth in the Territory. The ACT has experienced consistent year on year economic growth throughout this century.
This growth is delivering consistent low unemployment. It is also driving high levels of labour market participation – 72per cent through the year to August 2023, which is significantly higher than the national average of 67per cent.
In summary, we have nation-leading employment outcomes. Our economy is consistently delivering jobs for Canberrans.
For quite some time now, we have consistently had more job vacancies than we have unemployed people. At the moment we have roughly 20 percent more vacancies than people to fill those jobs.
This is full employment.
It is a highly desirable economic outcome – one we strive to achieve – but it can result in a different economic challenge – skill shortages in the economy.
Fortunately, we are in a better position than most to overcome these challenges.
Our current population projections have the ACT reaching half a million residents by 2027. Population growth means a stronger, more resilient, more diverse economy, and more opportunities. It fuels the need for expanding public and private sector services.
We are committed to growing public services to meet this increase in demand. We are hiring more nurses and health professionals for our new and expanded hospitals, and we will hire more teachers for our new schools.
We know that recruitment and attraction is a big piece of the workforce puzzle.
So, we will continue our workforce attraction campaigns and we will focus on making sure Canberra continues to be one of the most liveable cities in the world and a desirable place to live.
The construction industry will continue to be a strong employer as we undertake our biggest infrastructure program since self-government.
We are building more housing, better transport connections, and new hospitals and schools.
The National Capital Investment Framework the Prime Minister and I announced earlier this year will also ensure a steady pipeline of investment and jobs will flow into the Territory economy from future Commonwealth budgets.
As we see our economy grow, the need for more skilled workers will grow.
This is a national priority, and the ACT welcomes the announcement from the Prime Minister this week of the new five-year National Skills Agreement between the Commonwealth and state and territory Governments.
The Agreement will focus on lifting the national skill level and attracting more skilled workers into critical and emerging industries.
This includes building the workforce to tackle current and emerging skills shortages in the renewable energy sector, the care industries and cyber security.
We all know how important education and training is, and that’s why the agreement will make sure everyone has the opportunity to access learning throughout their life.
The agreement ensures increased access to the education, training and support needed to obtain secure employment is made available to those that need it most.
It builds on the good work already underway.
For example, the fee-free TAFE program rolled out across our CIT makes it cheaper to study, helps more Australians to get good, secure jobs, and makes the decision to retrain so much easier. Our support for the Fee-Free TAFE program has already seen more than 2500 Canberrans gain new skills and retrain for free.
For the ACT – our skills and education sector is not just an enabler for our broader labour market – it’s going to be the sector that drives the Territory’s economic development and export earnings over the next five years.
International education is Canberra’s most valuable export.
Pre-covid, this was our only billion-dollar export industry, and we are working to get back to that level – and beyond.
It is a sector of the economy where the ACT punches well above our weight. We make up around 1.8per cent of the national population, but our international education sector contributes nearly 3per cent of the national total.
We are the home of close to 40,000 students.
Our appeal lies not just in the quality of education and teaching but in the opportunity for innovation, access to world leading research and our city’s liveability, all of which makes Canberra a global hub for learning.
Our tertiary education sector is one of the largest employers in the ACT, creating jobs across various skill levels.
From educators and researchers, to administrative staff – the education and training sector employs or supports over 24,000 local jobs. Around 9per cent of all jobs in the city.
There is strong optimism that we will experience period of strong growth in the coming years.
The ACT Government is a big supporter of the push towards an Australian Universities Accord, which set out a long-term higher education plan for the sector.
This has been a wide-ranging review, but there are four key areas that the ACT Government is advocating for.
First, we are attracting greater investment in research. The ACT is Australia’s knowledge capital. We are renowned in our higher education and research sector and for our resident thought leaders, emerging technologies and innovation.
Second, we are strengthening links between our vocational and higher education sectors. While they have distinct roles and characteristics, there is scope to improve cooperation and collaboration between the two.
Third, we will continue to recognise the importance of international students in supporting economic growth and cultural diversity.
And finally, improving equity of access to higher education must underpin large parts of the Accord. As the most highly qualified city in Australia, we know the value education provides, when everyone is given a fair chance to reach their potential.
A practical example of this is our partnership with the Federal Government to integrate a Youth Foyer on our new CIT Woden campus, supporting vulnerable students with secure, affordable housing while they study.
It’s encouraging to see leadership from the Federal Government in actively supporting the university sector. Particularly after the decade long war against universities that was waged by the previous federal government.
As we continue to work on the national Accord, the Territory Government is getting on with numerous local projects in partnership with the higher education institutions and the private sector.
The Australian National University, through support from the ACT Government, are constructing a world-leading national health precinct in the City Centre – contributing to a major redevelopment of the city centre driven by the tertiary education sector.
The precinct will house hundreds of medical students, teachers, clinicians, and policymakers in City West over the coming years.
It will become home to the University’s world-leading translational work in public health, biomedical science, medicine and psychology, as well as transforming research in next[1]generation personalised precision medicine into treatments available to the public.
I also had the pleasure of recently announcing a $1 million contribution from the ACT Government, matched by SmartSat CRC, to establish an ACT space research and development partnership program.
One of the projects that will be supported through this program is the development of Ozfuel at the ANU Institute of Space, which will provide improved satellite capability to assist in bushfire prevention, detection, mitigation, and resilience.
The University of Canberra is working on establishing the Digital Building and Built Environment Hub which will support both education and research in sustainable building and construction.
Then there is the Open Source Institute, a not-for-profit founded by UC and Canberra company Instaclustr focusing on open-source research and development.
And I was pleased to see news that the University is progressing with their campus master plan and providing a timely boost to housing supply, through the construction of a large housing and commercial precinct on their Bruce campus.
The ACT Government has recently approved a significant, city shaping development in the city centre – the UNSW Canberra City campus master plan.
The $1 billion development will support the growth and diversification of the ACT economy through increased student numbers, research investment and the creation of roughly 2,000 new jobs, and will generate up to $3 billion in economic benefits for the ACT economy.
The new campus will not only attract around 6,000 local, national and international students, but it will also become a hub of innovation, with a new Defence and Security Innovation Precinct set to be a key feature of the new campus.
Then, there is an ongoing program of investment into the Canberra Institute of Technology, ensuring the organisation –is equipped to deliver the skills training for the future.
It is anticipated that the CIT Woden Campus will be welcoming its first students in mid-2025.
This project is a major step forward for Canberra’s primary vocational training provider – providing the infrastructure renewal the organisation needs to keep delivering the skill training Canberrans need for the jobs they want.
Each year, more than 6,500 students will find opportunities at the new precinct.
The new Campus will deliver simulated learning environments, commercial kitchens and hands-on training spaces to help students prepare for careers in business, cyber security, IT, creative industries, hospitality and tourism.
With work well underway in Woden, the Government will next look at the renewal of the CITs Belconnen facilities.
With development of a new North Canberra Hospital, the MOU with the Sports Commission on AIS precinct renewal including the Arena and Stadium, and ongoing upgrades and expansion on the UC campus, there will be no shortage of opportunities to improve collaboration and cooperation within this new and emerging hub of education, sports and health sciences in Bruce.
These days conversations about the economy inevitably lead to jobs and skills.
For the Government, our jobs target isn’t just about aggregate numbers across the economy. It is about well-being – lives transformed, families supported, and communities strengthened.
And the challenges we face, particularly in addressing labour and skill shortages, are also opportunities to build a stronger and more diverse city.
That’s why I have made the rebuilding of the ACT’s labour and skills market a high priority for the Government throughout this term, and it’s vital that work continues in the next few years.
I am looking forward to Canberra’s next chapter. One that gives more Canberrans access to great education and training. And one that is driven by innovation and collaboration between Governments, industry and community.
