West End Brewery

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:13): My question is to the Premier. What support will the state government provide specifically to the 94 South Australians who will lose their jobs as a result of the closure of the West End Brewery?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:13): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. It's an important question. It's one of the questions that I asked of Mr James Brindley, the managing director of Lion brewing Australia when I spoke to him on Monday morning.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: What he said was that of course all of those employees—95 employees in round terms—would be getting their full entitlements, but more than that they would get access to a fund that would help them in their transition beyond their employment at Lion brewing Australia. What we have to do as a government is everything we can to grow and stimulate our economy in South Australia and so that is exactly and precisely what we—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The leader will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: So that's exactly and precisely what we are doing. What we are looking at is every single input to business in South Australia to make it more productive, more competitive and attract more businesses to South Australia. One of the things that we have done since coming into government is to fix the chaotic and ideologically driven energy policy of the previous government, which failed the business community and failed employees in South Australia.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Whilst they saw fit to invest in dirty diesel, dirty diesel generators, to back up—

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

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and stabilise our grid in South Australia, by contrast—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier will resume his seat.

Mr Malinauskas: It's an absolute disgrace!

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader! The member for West Torrens is entitled to be heard in silence. The member for West Torrens rises on a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Thank you, sir. Standing order—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The leader will cease interjecting. The member for West Torrens on a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Thank you, sir. Standing order 98, debate: the Premier was asked what support will the state government provide to 94 South Australians who lost their jobs at the West End Brewery in Thebarton, and the Premier is talking about energy policy, sir.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I hear the point of order. The Premier has addressed a rather broader canvas in relation to the government's actions to support the economy more broadly. The Premier will stay with the subject matter of the question. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you very much, sir. As I was saying, these employees will get their full entitlements and also have access to the Lion West End Re-Skilling Fund, which is up to $1 million. Then the question went on to ask about what we would specifically be doing, and we have a very heavy obligation in this area to do every single thing that we possibly can to improve the competitiveness of South Australia so that we can provide alternative jobs for these employees.

This is a very sad day. This is an iconic South Australian business, and we've got to be doing everything we can to grow our economy and create those opportunities: opportunities for people who are in South Australia, opportunities for future generations, so they don't leave our state. I was going through some of the things that we are doing to improve the productivity of our state, and one of those things was putting downward pressure on energy prices here in South Australia because we are constantly told that energy prices under the previous government were way too high and the stability of the grid was way too low.

This was creating risk for investment in South Australia, so we have worked very hard to put a sensible energy policy in place and downward pressure on energy prices. We have already announced that there is going to be a massive reduction in water prices in South Australia because we have undone the rort that was going on in South Australia—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —for an extended period of time with an artificially inflated regulated asset base here in South Australia. So these are the things we are doing: we are investing in skills, we are lowering land tax in South Australia, we are lowering payroll tax in South Australia and we are doing everything we can to grow our economy.

One piece of very welcome news to us is that confidence is improving in South Australia. When we look at those figures through to the end of March earlier this year of the net interstate migration, what we saw under those opposite—when they were in government—was a lot of people leaving this state. We had an exodus of young people and capital out of our state: 4,000, 5,000, 6,000, 7,000, getting towards 8,000 net outflow of young people out of our state each and every year.

Well, I was very proud when I looked at those March figures this year—217 people. We are not going to rest. We want to get a net flow to South Australia, but this is a major show of confidence in the next generation to stay here in South Australia because we are creating those jobs, growing our economy and making us far more competitive.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Before I call the member for Newland, I call to order the member for Kaurna, I warn the member for Lee, I warn the member for West Torrens for a second time.