Vaccine Manufacturing Capability

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:19): My question is to the Premier. Has the Premier now met with BioCina chief executive, Ian Wisenberg, as I have, to discuss their local mRNA vaccine manufacturing capability?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:19): Wow! I think that probably the deal is almost pretty much done now. The Leader of the Opposition—the guy who closed the Repat, the guy who downgraded hospitals, the guy who's got no skills with negotiation whatsoever; in fact, I am yet to understand what his skills are. He was a good union boss, apparently; they were his skills.

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

The SPEAKER: The Premier will resume his seat.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Cheltenham is called to order and the member for Wright is warned. The member for West Torrens on a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The two standing orders I raise are 98 and 127. The first one is 98: the Premier wasn't answering the substance of the question at all and instead launched into an attack—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Minister for Education is called to order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The second is 127: the Premier immediately made personal reflections on another member of the house.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right! I listened carefully to the question. First of all, there's no point of order pursuant to standing order 127, and it has been a matter that has been addressed on a number of occasions already this week.

In relation to the point of order on standing order 98, the question in its terms sought a comparison in relation to whether a meeting had occurred. It was nonetheless directed primarily to what the Premier had or hadn't done, so I don't uphold the point of order for the time being. The Premier is addressing the question. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you very much. You are quite right, sir, the question was all about the contrasting style in terms of negotiation. As soon as the debate became a little bit heated, the real leader of the opposition jumps to his feet to try to defend the current Leader of the Opposition. The reality is they've got nowhere to stand on this issue. Having a meeting is not conducting a complex negotiation. We had been working with BioCina before they even came—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —to Australia. In earlier answers, I made it clear that we have been working—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is called to order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —with these people since 2018; 2018 is quite a long way in front of the last couple of weeks—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and the Leader of the Opposition—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —has jumped on the bandwagon on this issue. He is all at sea. They have lost the team up there in the dream factory, they have lost the brains trust that was able to quickly tweet down changes to questions that might enable them to be a little bit more nimble, a little bit more flexible in question time.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader will cease interjecting!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They have given up the will, but we haven't. On this side of the house we are very keen to make sure that we take all and every single opportunity. There is a lot of money on the table from the federal government, not only with regard to the mRNA vaccine manufacture but also with the modern manufacturing initiative—I think $1.3 billion. These are great opportunities for South Australia.

We haven't given up on manufacturing. We're doing everything we can to advance manufacturing here in South Australia, like our excellent investment down at Tonsley in the Line Zero project, which is delivering a huge opportunity for South Australian companies to get into the supply chain for those future frigates in South Australia. There is a huge amount of work happening down at Tonsley—

Mr Boyer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Wright!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —in manufacturing. I know that the Minister for Innovation and Skills—

Mr Boyer: We watched your mob chase Holden out.

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

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —had a very important meeting with people with regard to manufacturing last night. Of course, I met with the new federal minister responsible for this area of government expenditure in the last week and a half, and it was good to understand the federal government's interest in making sure that we can get as much manufacturing sovereign capability here in Australia going forward.

That is a partnership, and that is something those opposite don't know. They want to talk about the contrasting negotiation skills. One of the things that we have done in big contrast with those opposite—just continuing that theme introduced by the Leader of the Opposition—is to develop skills, a skilled workforce to address those skill deficiencies that we were left by those opposite, and I am very proud to say that we have worked with the federal government. We were the first to sign up to the Skilling Australians program in government. More than $200 million is now committed to apprenticeships, traineeships—modern skills to support manufacturing. We are very interested—

The SPEAKER: The Premier will resume his seat. The leader rises on a point of order.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: Standing order 98, sir. The question was incredibly specific. I was simply asking the Premier whether or not he had met the BioCina chief executive. I would simply ask him to answer the question.

The SPEAKER: The leader has recited a part of the question. I have addressed a point of order in similar terms. I don't uphold the point of order. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We continue to work and look for every single opportunity out of this global pandemic. The rest of the world is still reeling from the effects. South Australia has more people employed now than we had pre COVID. We've got more job advertisements in South Australia than we had in the history of the state. We've got more young people involved in apprenticeships and traineeships—in fact, more than 37½ thousand people. This gives more evidence to you, sir, and to this house that we will take every single opportunity to advance this state. mRNA manufacturing in Australia is a priority for the government and is a priority for this government here in South Australia.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Before I call the member for Flinders, I warn the Minister for Trade and Investment, I call to order the Minister for Energy and Mining and I warn the member for West Torrens.