Skilling South Australia

Mr TEAGUE (Heysen) (15:24): My question is to the Minister for Industry and Skills. Can the minister update the house on new projects being delivered under Skilling South Australia?

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley—Minister for Industry and Skills) (15:24): Thank you for the question, and I know that the member for Heysen is very interested in young people here in South Australia and the opportunities that they have under a new skilling regime here in South Australia. Under Skilling South Australia, the state government is delivering new training and employment opportunities. The Department for Industry and Skills is agile.

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell: What about the skill of delivering a speech without reading it?

The SPEAKER: Member for Mawson!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: We respond to industry needs, developing with industry and business custom projects. Thirty-three projects developed with businesses have been approved already.

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell: Run your finger under the word as you move onto the next one.

The SPEAKER: Member for Mawson, please!

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Mawson!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: Sixty-four businesses are currently being co-designed at this stage. Let's put that into perspective. We are working with businesses. They are coming to us with requests.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: They are identifying what are the obstacles for them in taking on trainees and apprentices. We are working with them to remove those obstacles and make sure that we are tailoring the funding we are delivering in Skilling South Australia for those businesses so they can get on and deliver for South Australians. $8.5 million has been approved for project and quota activity: the Motor Trade Association automotive apprenticeship pathway.

The Aboriginal apprenticeship initiative—and I know this is something that the Premier is very interested in—is run by the department at a value of $848,000. Civil Train, a pre-apprenticeship program with 61 places for the Monarto Zoo project, $513,000, and primarily for Aboriginal jobseekers. The package includes mentoring, workplace support and employer networking. These are all key elements that help deliver successful training outcomes. Zancott Recruitment—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: Salisbury Heights.

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —Indigenous defence industry and manufacturing training for apprentices, 68 places to support apprenticeships in the defence and manufacturing sectors. There is exposure to a range of apprenticeship-related areas, including engineering, mechanical, fabrication in the welding sector, computer-aided design, IT and cybersecurity. The project includes structured industry rationale work placements, business buddies, aligned mentoring support and employer networks. Again, that is very important for these projects to work.

Workskil Australia—25 current and new workers commenced traineeships in youth work, disability, community services, leadership and management, and IT. The support—

The Hon. Z.L. Bettison: This is after you cut all the job supports.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: The member for Ramsay interjects 'cuts'. The RoGS report shows that in their last year of office they cut $11.8 million from training—$11.8 million they cut from training. Crocodile tears from the Labor Party. We put $203 million, with the federal government, into training—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —here in South Australia. There was a 66 per cent drop in training and apprentice outcomes here in South Australia under Labor over the last six years. We have arrested the decline and we are building the workforce here in South Australia, and it's needed. It's needed for the defence contracts—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —that are coming our way, that are starting to roll out as we speak. We heard the Premier in Canberra, there for the signing for the $50 billion of spending with Naval Group. It's a very exciting time for South Australia. It's our job as a government to make sure that we are more than just an assembly plant. We want to have the highest skilled people in the country here in South Australia so companies come to South Australia and build their businesses here in South Australia so we can value add to the opportunities that the federal government have delivered here in South Australia.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: You can walk out on parliament, but you can't walk out on a royal commission.

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I have already kicked him out once today. I hope this changes for the rest of the day, honestly; it's not a good look. The member for Lee.