SOUTHERN ADELAIDE ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PLAN

Mr BIGNELL (Mawson) (15:25): Thank you very much, Mr Acting Speaker, for that warm welcome; and it is, indeed, about the south I rise to speak about today. Last Thursday evening I had the honour of representing minister Hunter at a function to launch the Southern Adelaide Economic Development Plan through to 2021. It was great to be there with so many people who are passionate about the south of Adelaide. The member for Mitchell was there. It was held in the canteen of the former Mitsubishi site at Tonsley Park; and, of course, the member for Mitchell used to work on the production line at Mitsubishi for many years and has a strong feeling for it.

Tom Phillips, who is the chair of the Southern Adelaide Economic Development Plan, of course, was also there, and it was the first time he had been back in that canteen since the day he had to break the news to the workers at Mitsubishi that Mitsubishi was going to close its Adelaide operation. The member for Reynell was also there. Gay Thompson has worked incredibly hard over many years to promote the south and to make sure that we get the very best for the people of the south. I commend the member for Reynell for all her work.

It was great to pick up the paper the next day, too, to see the report on it because sometimes the newspapers can be a little bit negative; but to pick up The Advertiser on Friday and see the front-page headline 'Southern Successway' was brilliant, as well as a full two-page coverage on pages 6 and 7 . I would like to commend Cameron England from The Advertiser. There is a lot of negativity from time to time in the media, not just in The Advertiser, but I always find the business section of The Advertiser quite an uplifting read and a place full of positive stories about businesses in South Australia.

I commend Cameron not just for his coverage of the Southern Adelaide Economic Development Plan launch but also the day-to-day coverage that he does in The Advertiser's business pages and the way in which he promotes many times not only small business but also some of the mining companies that are doing great things in developing projects here in South Australia.

The plan is for the south to gain an extra 14,000 jobs between now and 2021, and that is a goal that is highly achievable. I want to commend not only Tom Phillips and all the board members but also the two councils—the Onkaparinga council and Marion city council—that have worked on this plan for the past six months. It is really good to see councils getting together rather than sitting in their own council areas and not looking at sharing their knowledge and sharing their dreams and their wishes with their neighbouring councils.

I think that Onkaparinga and Marion have got a terrific relationship going. I chair the Southern Expressway Employment Task Force and I am really happy to have Glen Hinckley and Brigitte Ransom on that committee, because they have such great connections into the local communities, the business associations and the providers of employment. That has been a real success as well. The first figures out on that show that, of the 750 people who have been inducted to work on the site of the Southern Expressway, 52 per cent of them come from southern Adelaide. Our goal was to hit 50 per cent, and I am really pleased to see that, at this early stage in the development of the expressway, we are tracking just ahead of the 50 per cent.

There are also some great figures on the amount of South Australian companies that have been successful in gaining work on the Southern Expressway to date, and that figure is up around 80 per cent. We will keep monitoring the joint venture group, which is Abigroup and Baulderstone, to make sure that they are looking first and foremost to employ people from the south and to engage local contractors from the south, and, if not from the south, then the rest of metropolitan Adelaide or South Australia before they go interstate.

When we talk about the south, manufacturing still accounts for 43 per cent in terms of output; rental, hiring and real estate is 10.9 per cent; construction is 6.2 per cent; retail is 5.9 per cent; and finance and insurance is 5.8 per cent.

We also have the wine industry, which is a very big employer in the south, and again I want to commend Tom Phillips, the chair, who has suggested we have a big hotel built in McLaren Vale to cater for all the visitors. That is something I have been championing for many years. If we can attract the right developer to town, we have one of the world's greatest wine regions just 45 minutes from an international airport, and we would love to play host to people from all around the world—and your good self, Mr Acting Speaker.

The ACTING SPEAKER (Hon. M.J. Wright): Thank you. The member for Morialta.