Mining Employment

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN (Stuart) (15:15): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier stand by his promise of 13 November last year to create an additional 5,000 jobs in the mining and resources sector by 2017 and, if so, how many mining and resources sector jobs have been created since making that promise?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (15:15): What we did—and I know those opposite have derided the fact that we have established 10 priorities for the future of South Australia, but we just remind those opposite of how it was achieved. Thousands and thousands of South Australians, businesspeople from across every sector—the community sector, academia, leaders from across our Public Service—came together, after the last election, to come up with a plan, a vision for the future of South Australia. We know that we face many challenges. Ten priorities emerged.

The government took it upon itself to actually call itself to account by publishing targets over the course of the life of this government, so that by the time we get to the next election we have set targets for ourselves. Now, they are stretch targets. We accept that. Whether we achieve them or not will largely depend on our capacity to mobilise every resource in this state for that purpose. Some of them may not be able to be achieved. I notice that there is this little finesse, that everything that is advanced as a target for the future of our state now gets turned into a promise, so they are going to try to erect some argument—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: No, he's talking about something that was published late last year—I think you need to compare your notes—after the election. I don't think they compare question time strategies here. This was a document that was published late last year, the 10 areas that we published. We said we would publish targets that we were going to strive to as a state. What we need to do is everybody in this state needs to work together to achieve those objectives. One of the difficulties we have is that half of the political equation is kelp on the keel, is dragging us, not prepared to participate in this endeavour.

Members interjecting:

Mr GARDNER: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: If the point of order is that the Premier is not responsible for the opposition, yes, the member for Morialta is right, but I would be far more—

Mr GARDNER: I would add unparliamentary language to it as well, sir.

The SPEAKER: Well, I would be far more likely to uphold the point of order and sit the Premier down if there wasn't a torrent of interjections from my left-hand side—far more inclined to uphold the point of order. What is the point about parliamentary language?

Mr GARDNER: Kelp on the keel, sir.

The SPEAKER: Erskine May prohibits members referring to one another as animals. I am yet to be convinced that there is a precedent that one member cannot call another member a plant.

The Hon. T.R. Kenyon: Flora is in, fauna is out.

The SPEAKER: The member for Newland summarises it correctly. The Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I can solve the problem for the opposition. Come the end of 2017—we published these targets. We know the risk we took when we did that. We are going to hold ourselves—

The SPEAKER: Point of order.

Mr VAN HOLST PELLEKAAN: I ask you to ask the Premier to come back to the substance of the question, which included giving progress on what has been achieved to date against the target.

The SPEAKER: Yes, I do recall the question. The Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: The one piece of progress that we have actually made was roundly criticised by those opposite, that is attracting OZ Minerals to set up their head office here. One of the key objectives we set ourselves was to set up three new head offices in the mining industry, and when we achieved one of those head offices it gets roundly criticised.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: So, we are working away at the objectives we set ourselves in that plan. We are holding ourselves to account; every public servant in this state knows that they're to be held to account. Every minister who has a responsibility for this area is going to be held to account. But we would be assisted in this endeavour if those opposite could get on board with the overwhelming majority of South Australians who just want them to come up with a single positive idea to advance South Australia.

The SPEAKER: The members for Adelaide and Mount Gambier are warned for the first time. The member for Stuart.