House of Assembly Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1) 53 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time ForestrySA ForestrySA Mr WILLIAMS House of Assembly MacKillop ForestrySA Mr WILLIAMS (MacKillop) (15:12): My question is to the Premier. Why did the Premier tell the house on 20 May that he stood by his previous commitment in relation to the sale of the timber harvests and said, 'There are serious conditions we are putting on the sale to make sure that there is long term certainty for the people that work directly for ForestrySA', given that it is now confirmed that 60 ForestrySA jobs will be lost? The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL House of Assembly Cheltenham Premier ForestrySA The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (15:12): We do stand by that commitment. I notice that it was expressed in a slightly different form when it was asked of me the first time in parliament. Now the actual words are put in the public sphere of course we stand by that commitment. As the minister has just suggested, the long-term strength of this sector of ForestrySA and, indeed, the forest industry generally relies upon the sorts of decisions that have been taken. I think what has been lost in all of this is that these are voluntary separation packages. Despite the broader commitments that have been made to the public sector, we have made it clear that these particular workers in ForestrySA will have ongoing employment. They can make their own decisions about whether they choose to remain in the public sector, and suitable redeployment arrangements will be made for them. It is a particular commitment that we have made to those particular workers given the circumstances of the sale and the expectations that were generated. If that's the best you can do in terms of trawling up something that I said—which is materially different, I must say, from what was told to the parliament last time we met—then you are going to have to look a little bit further. I maintain my commitment that the long-term security for those workers and for the forestry industry more generally is going to be advanced by the arrangements we put in place.