Question Time

Employment Figures

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:19): My question is to the Premier. In light of the recent ABS employment figures showing South Australia's unemployment rate has risen to 8.2 per cent, is the Premier still confident in the state budget's forecast of 1 per cent employment growth in the 2015-16 year?

Dr McFetridge interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morphett is called to order. Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:19): Thank you, Mr Speaker. Necessarily, the budget forecasts are put together in a conservative fashion. They are done having regard to experts within the agency, independently assessed. We do not interfere with those assessments; they are not government numbers. They reflect the assessments of the paid professional independent Public Service, and so they are incorporated into the budget papers on that basis. They do not represent our targets, or our promises, or our commitments: they represent the assessment of what is likely to happen.

We hope to do better than the assessment that is contained in the budget papers. We hope to grow more jobs than have been forecast by the Treasury officials. But we also need to be mindful of the fact that we are heading into incredibly strong headwinds. We have a manufacturing sector which is crumbling at an accelerating rate. We have, of course, the closure of Holden to consume. If we can indeed continue to grow employment, if in net terms we are growing employment, this will be a substantial achievement, remembering that we still have to grow by an extra 1 per cent per annum just to soak up the additional growth in our workforce each year for us to even make any mileage on our unemployment rate.

This is a massive challenge for South Australia. It is a massive challenge, not just for the government but it is a massive challenge for those sitting on the other side as well because they play a role in supporting or making it more difficult for us to make the necessary changes which the South Australian economy needs to transform so that it can make this adjustment from an old economy to a new economy.

Over the last period of time, I think you can track back the transformation of the South Australian economy from a sleepy agrarian economy. You can track it all the way back to the Playford era, when he sought to industrialise the South Australian economy. That old economic model was blown away through the internationalisation of the South Australian economy with the bringing down of the tariff wall.

Since that time, every government of every persuasion has been seeking to broaden the base of the South Australian economy, whether it is the defence sector, the mining sector, the tourism sector, the health industries sector, or our food and wine sector—adding value to food and fibre. All of those initiatives are about governments of all persuasions seeking to broaden the South Australian economy, and I think all of us should be proud of what we have achieved here in South Australia. It is a broad—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: It is a broad-based economy which does have the capacity for us to meet this challenge, and it is a challenge which is a particular challenge for South Australia. It is true that we haven't been assisted by the slowdown of the Australian economy generally; we haven't been assisted by the withdrawal of $500 million by the commonwealth government in relation to the closure of Holden; we haven't been assisted by the uncertainty of the federal government that is being created around both the defence industry (in particular, future submarines), or indeed our renewable energy sector.

Of course, we haven't been assisted by the $5.5 billion worth of cuts that have been put into the South Australian economy over the next 10 years, and we have been particularly affected by the collapsing commodity prices. Notwithstanding all of those challenges, I believe that this state has the capacity to change, to adjust and be prosperous and successful in the future—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: For those opposite, if they could just offer a positive idea and get on board.

The SPEAKER: I call to order the members for Mount Gambier, Unley and Adelaide, and the leader. Because of repeated interjection, I warn the member for Unley for the first time and I warn the member for Morphett for the first time. Supplementary?