Nuclear Waste

Ms CHAPMAN (Bragg—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:36): To the Minister for Housing and Urban Development, now that the minister is in a position to answer questions, could he indicate whether he now supports the Premier's nuclear waste dump?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: That debacle by the opposition is entirely disorderly and will have consequences. Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:37): Yes, and one of the consequences, sir, will be to rub their nose in what has been, I think, a catastrophic error of judgement by the Leader of the Opposition. As business lunch and business breakfast and business organisation one after another contact us on a daily basis to say they have lost complete confidence in those opposite—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —nervous laughter—as they contact us and say that any shred of faith they had in the Liberal Party has now completely gone, and as he has driven his team out into the open and has them fixed in the open with every major business group training their weapons on them, he will begin to realise, as will those sitting behind him, that he has embarked on a massive mistake on behalf of his group.

The people of South Australia will always be brought into our trust, and that is why we have engaged in a deep and intelligent public conversation with them about the future of our state in the nation, and it is beginning to have a dramatic effect. Today, we saw the 15^th consecutive reduction in the unemployment rate in this state. As they were busily hitting the refresh button at 11am this morning, just praying for bad news, what popped up? South Australia having a lower unemployment rate than Western Australia.

South Australia created in the order of 10,000 jobs in the past year—and all this in the face of a federal government that chased Holden out of our state, that pocketed $700 million in subsidy, that did not lift a finger for a labour market adjustment program out of that $700 million and dithered over the Future Submarines contract in a way which has led to the loss of hundreds of jobs down in Techport. Despite all those headwinds, without any assistance from those opposite—

The SPEAKER: Point of order.

Mr BELL: On relevance: the question was whether the minister was allowed to speak to the nuclear waste dump and we got the answer.

The SPEAKER: These questions have been going on for some days now. These questions are of a rhetorical nature and the Premier is giving a rhetorical answer.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Thank you, Mr Speaker. What were the brains trust opposite and the Treasury spokesperson opposite saying? In July 2015, the Hon. Rob Lucas said this:

South Australia is in the midst of a dangerous jobs crisis and is careering towards double digit unemployment.

This was the chief economic adviser for those opposite, the shadow treasurer. He went on to say:

It is becoming clearer every day that South Australia needs jobs creation now, not in a few years like the Weatherill Labor government is talking about.

Since that time, the trend unemployment rate has fallen from 7.8 per cent to 6.6 per cent.

The SPEAKER: Point of order, member for Unley.

Mr PISONI: I ask you to bring the Premier back to the substance of the question.

The SPEAKER: There is no merit in the point of order. Is the Premier finished?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Yes.