Question Time

Employment Figures

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:03): My question is to the Premier. Whose job does the Premier care about more: the Minister for Child Protection's or the 12,000 South Australians' who lost their jobs in the month of January?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:03): We care very sincerely about every single job in South Australia and that's why we have done everything within our power to keep our state safe from the coronavirus and our economy strong. We were very quick out of the blocks with a very significant stimulus and support package which will be rolled out over the next two years to make sure we can create and sustain as many jobs as we possibly can. Our stimulus and support package over the two-year period is a $4 billion stimulus and support package. I know that what we are doing is getting that money out the door as quickly as possible—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —with a quarter of a billion dollars going to small businesses in South Australia. Small businesses and sole traders—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Those opposite are shouting, 'When?' It has already been received and I have received a lot of grateful thanks from the people of South Australia that we have a government that is putting those businesses first.

What we have seen from right around the world is business collapse and huge unemployment spikes in many other countries of the world, but Australia has done particularly well with regard to the health aspects of dealing with the coronavirus. That has translated directly into sustaining and growing as many jobs as we possibly can.

We are disappointed with the ABS labour force statistics which are out today. We know those statistics come from the first part of January. We have had other ABS statistics which have come subsequent to that, and they show a rosier picture. We know that in those last two weeks—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They don't like good news, sir.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The reality is—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that, when we look at the payroll, jobs in South Australia in the second two weeks of January—so after those statistics on the labour force were done—we saw a 1.8 per cent increase in the number of jobs in South Australia. That means we are over 10 per cent higher than at the low point at the epicentre of the coronavirus.

In fact, according to the ABS statistics, South Australia has 2.4 per cent more jobs than at the beginning of February last year, so this is a major step in the right direction, but I would say that there is a huge amount of work to be done—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and that is why, when we brought down our budget late last year—it was a delayed budget because of the coronavirus—we massively invested in supporting businesses and individuals, supporting productive infrastructure, $16.7 billion worth of productive infrastructure.

I am very proud to say that this is a government that has invested, most importantly, in skills development. In fact, since coming to government $288 million of new money is going into skills development in South Australia. When I look at those NCVER figures, those opposite cringe. We love it because we are seeing very significant increases in the number of apprentices and trainees—

Mr Boyer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Wright!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —completely outperforming the rest of the country. This is going to be a tough year, and we know there are some out there who want to talk down our opportunities. There are some out there who were saying we were going to have 100,000 new unemployed people in South Australia. That's what some of our commentary was suggesting earlier in the year. That hasn't happened, and it hasn't happened because the people of South Australia have worked with the government, worked with SA Health, worked with South Australia Police, to keep our state safe and keep our economy strong. I expect that is going to continue into the future, and that is our focus.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Before I call the leader, I call to order the member for Hurtle Vale, I call to order and warn the member for Wright, I call to order and warn the member for Badcoe, I call to order and warn the member for Playford, I call to order and warn the member for Kaurna, I call to order the member for Ramsay, I call to order and warn the member for Lee, I call to order the member for West Torrens, I call to order the deputy leader, I call to order the leader, and I call to order the Minister for Education.