Investment Attraction

Mr TRELOAR (Flinders) (14:49): My question is to the Minister for Trade and Investment. Can the minister update the house on how the government is securing business and consumer confidence through programs that are attracting investment into South Australia?

The Hon. S.J.R. PATTERSON (Morphett—Member of the Executive Council, Minister for Trade and Investment) (14:49): Thank you, member for Flinders. Of course, he comes from a great electorate, Eyre Peninsula being the heart of a real engine room for our economy. It is great to go down and visit the member for Flinders, being with him at Port Lincoln and seeing some of the great aquaculture they have down there, whether it is Coffin Bay oysters or, closer to Port Lincoln, the kingfish and bluefin tuna as well. It is fantastic produce there in our traditional industry that we have here in South Australia.

We are always looking to the future and what is going on into the future, so we are also setting up those industries of the future. One of those precincts is, of course, Lot Fourteen. That is really starting to show in terms of changing where we are going in the economy. As I spoke about just previously in parliament, AWS have arrived here and want to set up in Adelaide, which is fantastic news. They are one of the top two businesses in the world, coming right here to South Australia. That is jobs for South Australians, high-value jobs as well.

It is not just about getting those big key anchors. It is also about the ecosystem trying to get those smaller businesses. They can feed off, build into and work with those bigger ones and then grow out and one day become larger companies themselves. As a government, we really want to encourage that. We want to attract those sorts of small, thriving, globally focused businesses.

That is why we have the Landing Pad program, which is a fantastic program. There is $4 million of funding in that program. It is a way to try to get these small businesses set up in South Australia in their first 12 months and get them to understand what it is like in South Australia. It provides up to $80,000 in the first 12 months for each of those small businesses. There is up to $40,000 towards setting up their office and also a little around their working space and reimbursing office expenses.

Additionally, there is another up to $40,000 in those first 12 months to try to understand what the tax system is like in Australia and what the legal environment is in South Australia. It is so important to help them with that sort of advice. There is even some marketing as well. Our department also tries to work with these businesses to provide them with non-financial support. In those partnerships, Lot Fourteen is about having businesses interact and trying to build on that.

Recently, I had a great opportunity to speak to all businesses that are part of the Landing Pad program. They are businesses that have come from Canada, India, Spain, France, Hong Kong, New Zealand and also the USA. These are high-growth companies, and they have looked to set up here in South Australia. If I could just talk about one of them, CH4—which goes along with the aquaculture theme the member for Flinders mentioned—is a fantastic business. I spoke with their CEO, Steve Meller. He is a businessperson, an entrepreneur, who has come out of Silicon Valley and built up below-the-line profits of over $20 billion in his time.

He is now coming here to South Australia and setting up a seaweed growing and cultivation company. The seaweed can be processed in such a way that it can be given as feedstock to cattle. We know that cattle produce methane emissions. Methane is 25 per cent more intense in terms of the greenhouse effect and carbon dioxide, so it is an important industry to try to mitigate methane emissions. This goes a long way towards that. It only takes up about 1 per cent of their feedstock and they are getting great results.

That is just one of the businesses. These are future growth industries. That is a massive opportunity for our state. I am glad that we are leading the way from that point of view. That is building the economy here, building jobs for South Australia, and that is what we will be working hard on every single day we are in government.