Regional Employment

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:59): Given the minister's answer, can the minister explain why the state government has failed to deliver an equivalent level of funding in response to on-site job losses at Alinta and Arrium as for the northern suburbs of Adelaide?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:59): I wanted to protect you from the Minister for Regional Development. He gave you such a towelling up that I thought it was appropriate that I actually step in at this point. Fair's fair.

We are confronted with the closure of the car industry in South Australia, and I think one does need to get a sense of proportion about this. We are talking about the largest sector, by value, up until a very short period of time ago, in the South Australian economy (the manufacturing sector) and the largest segment within that particular economy, being the car manufacturing sector.

That is a gargantuan change in the South Australian economy. It is right and proper that very substantial resources were devoted to it, and many more are probably going to be necessary to be devoted to that massive change. That is not to say that there are not very substantial changes also occurring in regional towns, in particular, Whyalla. We are, obviously, taking every step that we can to support Arrium in their decision to be able to remain viable in the face of falling iron ore prices and we will take whatever additional steps are necessary to support that town.

Simultaneously, also, we are confronted with the loss of Port Augusta's power stations and, of course, Leigh Creek's coalmine, and we are in the early stages of completing that work. Remember, of course, in relation to both of those matters, we have very substantial obligations as a government to take back about 140 of those workers in that particular area. So we already have made a very substantial contribution as a state government to ameliorating the effect of those changes, but more will be necessary to be done.

What we are not going to do is apply money before we have a very clear idea of the sense of purpose in which it needs to be applied. That is why we are doing the work at the moment with Leigh Creek. Leigh Creek has a future until 2018 and, indeed, the people there have an opportunity to remain in their own homes, including their tenancies, for a further 12 months. So there is a degree of security in the short term for a number of those workers.

We do not underestimate the urgency of the response but I think it is unfair to compare the various levels of support and, also, the different stages of response that we are presently engaged in with each of those communities. There is no part of South Australia that is less important than another and we will be responding to each of these parts of South Australia in its proper measure.