Ministerial Statement

ECONOMIC STATEMENT

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Minister for State Development) (14:08): I seek leave to make a ministerial statement.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Throughout the history of South Australia our economic development has been based on a shared vision of the future that has been supported by a strong consensus across the community. From the dream of a planned settlement in a 19^th century English drawing room to the industrialisation of our state under Sir Thomas Playford, to the expansion of our mining, defence and education sectors over the last decade, little about our economic development has happened by chance.

Yesterday, I announced at a function held by the Committee for Economic Development for Australia that the government will produce a new economic statement for South Australia. This statement will build on the work done by the government and the Economic Development Board in 2009, and it will allow us to develop a shared perspective as a state and an economy and a shared vision for our future.

The first part of this process is laying out the government's vision for the state's future. There are good reasons to be confident in the strength of the South Australian economy. We firmly believe our future is centred on the seven strategic priorities that were laid out in His Excellency the Governor's speech earlier this year.

The government has an economic plan for South Australia which will grow our mining industry and share the benefits for all South Australians, transform our existing manufacturing sector into an advanced manufacturing sector, use our reputation for growing food in our clean soil, water and air to sell premium food to the world, and attract people to live, work and play in our vibrant city centre.

Our future success will depend on our success in attracting and retaining people, and the creativity and innovation and ideas that they bring to our state. This approach of encouraging creativity and innovation will need to be at the heart of everything we do if we are to achieve our vision for South Australia.

In the long term, economic growth is determined by productivity growth, and productivity growth is fundamentally influenced by the level of infrastructure investment in your economy. That is why we have embarked on a $10.8 billion program of infrastructure investment, in projects like road, rail and our city infrastructure. Our borrowing to fund this infrastructure will be prudent and manageable.

The path the Labor government has chosen of investing in state building infrastructure and services for our people is the right choice for our future. Now is not the time to turn our backs on infrastructure spending which is sustaining jobs in our economy, or shrinking from services we provide to our people.

This is the government's perspective and, over the coming months, we will work with the rest of the community, large and small business, community organisations, our universities and public institutions, unions and individual South Australians to develop this shared vision and deliver the economic statement early next year.