Question Time

DOME Funding

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:07): My first question this afternoon is to the Premier. Why has the Premier cut $400,000 to the Don't Overlook Mature Expertise organisation, otherwise known at DOME, that specifically assists mature age jobseekers? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: Despite South Australia's unemployment rate being the worst in the nation before the COVID-19 crisis, and with the rate expected to soar in the next financial year, the government has cut $400,000 to DOME, which supports approximately 2,000 mature age jobseekers at any one time, and this cut will force the 38-year-old organisation to close.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley—Minister for Innovation and Skills) (14:08): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. I don't accept the premise of the question. The facts are that funding is available for DOME now and will be available for DOME in the new year.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: The federal government moved into the career service area in a big way—

The Hon. Z.L. Bettison interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Ramsay, please!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —in the 2018 budget. There is $189.7 million over five years to support mature age Australians to adapt and transition—

Mr Malinauskas: We are talking about South Australians.

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —in the transition economy and develop new skills needed to remain in the workforce, and that was expanded to those who are receiving welfare benefits as well. As a government, of course—

Mr Picton interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Kaurna!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —we also went into partnership with the federal government with skills delivery here in South Australia. That skills delivery—$100 million from the federal government and $100 million from the state government—through our Skilling South Australia program has KPIs and benchmarks that we must deliver as a government in order to receive that money from the federal government.

We in turn have been changing the way we do business here in South Australia. One of the new things that the government has done is actually engage industry in job creation. We have engaged industry. What Labor left us with was not only a TAFE system that was in disarray, a skills system that was going backwards, a 66 per cent drop-off—

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens has a point of order. Minister, please be seated for one moment.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: This is debate, sir. The question was: why did the government cut funding to DOME?

The SPEAKER: Yes. I have the point of order. With respect to the member for West Torrens, there was a fair bit in the question. However, I believe that the minister, after some compare and contrast, may have started to deviate from the substance of the question, so could he come back to the substance. I will allow some compare and contrast with former governments, but if you could come back to the substance of the question it would be greatly appreciated. Thank you, minister.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: Thank you, sir. They don't want to hear it because what they don't want to hear is that, under their program, under their model of funding for organisations like DOME—block funding—we saw an 85 per cent drop, in their last four years in office, in the number of apprenticeships and traineeships undertaken by mature age South Australians. What do we see in the first 12 months of the Skilling South Australia program? We saw a 107 per cent increase in paid apprenticeships and traineeships over the age of 45—a massive turnaround.

The national increase was 3.8 per cent; here in South Australia it was 107 per cent. Why have we achieved that? Because the Skilling South Australia model is working. Other organisations that were in DOME's position have got on board with the government's program, and they have been working with the government to deliver income, to deliver outcomes—

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is warned.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —for South Australians. What employers need is a skilled workforce. What Labor left us with was the lowest skilled workforce on the mainland when they left office—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —and they didn't even have a skills policy at the last election. Here we are, more than two years out from that period, with still no skills policy other than sniping from the side. That's all we get from those opposite.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Minister, be seated for one moment. Member for West Torrens, for debate?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, sir.

The SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order. Minister, please come back to the substance of the question, or have you concluded your answer?

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: Mr Speaker, we have been talking with DOME. My department has been in negotiations with DOME over the last 18 months, discussing how they can adjust their business model so that they can have access to Skilling South Australia money.

The Hon. Z.L. Bettison: After you cut all their funding.

The SPEAKER: The member for Ramsay is warned.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: One of the key levers that's been working exceptionally well in getting more people into skilled training—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —paid skilled training, is the pre-traineeship programs—the very programs that they criticised on that side of the house. We are actually doing fewer of them than they were doing when they were in office. The difference is that we link them to paid training when they are finished, and we are getting those training outcomes. We are working with organisations like DOME and others to deliver more skills for the transitioning economy here in South Australia, because we want to come back stronger after this pandemic is over.