MANUFACTURING SECTOR

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (15:14): My question is to the Premier. What is the government's specific plan to stop job losses in the manufacturing sector given that there have been 12,000 manufacturing jobs lost since Labor was re-elected in 2010? In the last few weeks there have been media announcements of 140 job losses at Viterra, 60 job losses at Penrice, 80 job losses at Boral, 47 job losses at Brown Wood Panels, and dozens of job losses at the PPI Corporation.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (15:14): I thank the honourable member for his question, and it is an important question. I know, obviously, with his background working in the manufacturing sector he would have paid particular attention to the manufacturing strategy which has been recently launched by the former minister for manufacturing, the member for West Torrens.

Mr Goldsworthy interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I call the member for Kavel to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: That, of course, sets out an advanced manufacturing future for South Australia. We know that with a high Australian dollar it becomes difficult to compete with cheap imports and it becomes difficult to export, so the only way in which we are going to effectively find our way in the world is to go up the value chain—to add value to our food and our fibre, to create products and services which are meshed together which create a new product.

The upside, of course, of the high Australian dollar is imports. I think 70 per cent of exporters actually import, so it does reduce import costs, it does give an opportunity for exporters to upgrade their capital equipment in ways that allow them to go up the innovation food chain. Essentially, in the words of Mr Seeley, we have got to 'innovate and automate'. I think that's a neat way of encapsulating what needs to happen with our manufacturing sector. He is a leading manufacturer.

It's businesses like his and SMR that make the mirrors that go into many of the world's cars now—a South Australian innovation, designed here and exported to the world. It's companies like Osmoflo down there in the mining services sector, creating kit desal and wastewater treatment plants, that are exporting their products and services to the world. It's products like those of Sage Automotive that are becoming an incredibly important part of the advanced manufacturing food chain and are being exported around Australia to the world. We need more of that.

We need to ensure that our business managers are more innovative. We need to have a highly skilled workforce that can add value to our products and services. We need a much stronger link between our tertiary sector and our businesses. That's what the Tonsley Park ambition is—to bring together Flinders University, businesses and the TAFE sector all in one precinct where we can imagine an advanced manufacturing future for South Australia because I, like the Leader of the Opposition, agree that we need a manufacturing future for this state, but we are prepared to do something about it.

We are prepared to invest money in it and have the investments in the skills sector, the investments that we are making through our voucher scheme to encourage those businesses that are prepared to innovate to stand up, put their hand up and ask for support from government. We are prepared to provide that support.

We see an ongoing role for government. We don't stand back and just say, 'Let the market take the hindmost here.' We are prepared to intervene because that has always been what the South Australian government has involved itself in. Do you think that this sleepy agrarian economy could have been turned into the industrial giant it was without the intervention of government by the Playford government?

Ms Chapman: Well, what are you going to do?

The SPEAKER: I warn the member for Bragg for the second time.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Using modern means, we will use the role of government to work in partnership with business to create an advanced manufacturing future for South Australia.