Industry Skills Councils

Ms BEDFORD (Florey) (14:52): My question is to the Minister for Innovation and Skills. Can the minister explain why the eight industry skills councils are not autonomously funded and whether this means they have only limited ability to drive skills agendas needed to match job demand with job supply. With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Ms BEDFORD: I am advised the eight skills councils meet irregularly, no members are paid sitting fees and, while administrative support is appreciated, agenda setting comes from the department rather than industry members, limiting the usefulness of the advice they can provide.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley—Minister for Innovation and Skills) (14:52): I thank the member for her question. It appears to me that she is misinformed by the information that she is referring to in her statement after she sought leave. Basically, the industry skills councils used to exist and they had government support up until about 2012 when the previous Labor government cut their funding and left them hanging and transferred the responsibility for the design of skills training here in South Australia to bureaucrats and unions. This is where skills training was designed from 2012. What did we see from 2012 to 2018? A 66 per cent decline in apprenticeships and traineeships here in South Australia.

What we did when we came to office is we took a skills policy to the election. We didn't take a TAFE in crisis and a non-government sector in crisis that Labor left when they left office and went to the election with no skills policy. Here we are, nearly three years after the election, and there is still no skills policy but plenty of sniping from the side. There is plenty of sniping from the side. They cannot stand the fact that we have a policy that's working, a policy that is delivering advice to government from the workshop floor right through to the business sector.

We are getting advice from where we need it, from those who are paying the wages of the apprentices and trainees, those who need the skills for their businesses to survive. That is where we are getting our advice from. I know it might be abhorrent to those on the other side that people are prepared to do things for their industry without being paid. We know that is unheard of on that side. We know the story, of course—

Ms Stinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Badcoe is warned for a second time.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —of the former chair of the CITB, Gay Thompson, being appointed to that position with no experience whatsoever in skills, but a good mate—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee!

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —of the Deputy Leader of the Opposition—

Mr Boyer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Wright is warned.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI: —was the only qualification she had for that job, and her strong commitment to the union movement. That is the only qualification she had for that job. I am getting my advice from industry that are coming forward, giving their time freely, and I thank them every time I meet with them, because we cannot do this without their support. We cannot turn around the mess that they left us without the support of industry. They need buy-in on this. They need to own this, and under this government they own it.