Skills Training

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (14:11): My question is to the Premier. Will the Premier update the house on how the government is investing in skills training and how this will help prepare residents in my electorate for future job opportunities?

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir: the Premier just gave a detailed ministerial statement, as did the Minister for Industry and Skills.

The SPEAKER: What is the point of order?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: What is the point of order?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER Order! The member will be heard in silence. What is the point of order?

Mr KOUTSANTONIS: The question is seeking a response that the house has just been given.

The SPEAKER: That is a bogus point of order, and the member knows it. I call him to order and I warn him. I will listen carefully to the Premier and ensure that the answer is not exactly the same as what I just heard. The Premier will be heard in silence.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:11): Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. It is a great pleasure to answer this question from the member for Colton. I am sure he is going to be very interested in the answer, unlike those opposite, who want to stop the Premier from giving a statement on how we are going to increase skills in South Australia. One of the things that we on this of the house talked about in the lead-up to the election was having more people with skills—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —in South Australia, and one of our initiatives, of course, was to establish a technical specialist secondary school in the north-western suburbs of South Australia. This was a very, very important commitment that we made to the people of South Australia, and the reason why we made it was very simple. When we actually looked at the results when the previous government was in power we saw a massive fall, a freefall, in terms of the number of apprentices and trainees here in South Australia.

Sir, I am sure you are very interested to know this, but in 2013 we had 30,693 people who were undertaking apprenticeships or traineeships in South Australia—2013, not that long ago. What have we got at the moment after 16 years of failed Labor government in terms of developing skills? The answer is 14,725, less than half the number of people undertaking apprenticeships and traineeships that existed in South Australia over five years ago.

Well, the reality is that that is completely unacceptable, and that's why the new government is focused every single day on trying to make sure that we have the requisite skills to deliver not only on the massive naval shipbuilding program that we have here in South Australia or coming to South Australia but also for the entire industry here in our state.

So earlier today I announced that yesterday I had signed an agreement with the Prime Minister—a national partnership agreement—to access $87 million worth of federal government funds via the Skilling Australians Fund, but we have done much more than that: we are pushing ahead with establishing a specialist technical college in the north-western suburbs of South Australia.

But more than that, we are not satisfied just with that level of performance: we are going to be streamlining the registration process for employers to hire apprentices. We want to see more kids who are finishing school considering a trade here in South Australia. We know that there are lots and lots of jobs in this area. In fact, a school student who is finishing school at the moment should have the reasonable expectation of a further 30 years in a trade here in South Australia if we provide that opportunity, and that's precisely what we are doing.

We are also providing more flexible apprenticeship pathways for commencing full-time work in year 12 while the student still continues to achieve their SACE qualification. As the minister has spoken in this parliament on many occasions, we will be re-establishing the industry skills councils and revitalising the Training and Skills Commission.

We do all of this because we have an ambition to grow the size of our economy. We want to grow the size of the economy because we want our next generation to stay here in South Australia. To do that, we've got to grow our economy and we've got to grow jobs. A key component of that is making sure that our students, when they finish school, look at the technical opportunities that exist within the wonderful opportunities that are presented by not only the naval shipbuilding program in South Australia but advanced manufacturing, agriculture, mining, and so many other technical areas in our state.