Early Childhood Development

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER (Morialta—Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:27): My question is to the Premier. Is the government considering workforce incentives to recruit teachers from interstate? With your leave and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: The Royal Commission into Early Childhood Education and Care by Commissioner Gillard points out that there are currently 2,000 early childhood bachelor-qualified teachers in South Australia at the moment, but the model the Premier has been talking about requires 2,800. The government has committed to three-year-old preschool by 2026, but is 800 teachers short. The Victorian government, from which Ms Little has been recruited, has offered workforce incentives in the tens of thousands of dollars to bring teachers from other states to Victoria.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:28): I thank the member for Morialta for this important question. I guess the short answer to the question is, no, not at this stage, but we have said publicly, both myself and the Premier, that we will consider any options that we think we might need to meet the workforce challenges, which are very clearly set out by Julia Gillard in her report.

I made some comments myself, I think, at the first education ministers meeting that I attended in Canberra with the new federal Minister for Education, the Hon. Jason Clare. These were quite pointedly directed at Victoria at the time, to be honest, which was the solution to the national shift to three-year-old preschool but also the skill shortages and national crisis that we are currently dealing with in a whole range of professions.

I was with the federal skills minister, Brendan O'Connor, this week at the Tonsley Innovation Precinct, where he commented that the official list of professions in short supply in Australia had grown, I think, by more than 100 in his time as minister. It is obviously a really acute issue in a range of areas.

I said to the gathered group that the solution nationally is not having states going off and offering big cash incentives everywhere to attract staff from over the border. The solution is doing what we can as independent states and territories to actually grow the pie locally—which, of course, is good because we aren't cannibalising the workforce of other states which are trying to do the right thing, particularly in terms of three-year-old preschool here, but it also means local jobs for local people which, of course, everybody in this place agrees with.

Having said that, we have made an election commitment and we are determined to deliver upon it. We will look and take advice at what incentives, if any, we need to offer to meet those very clear workforce challenges set out by the Hon. Julia Gillard.

I might just touch upon the member for Morialta's reference to Victoria and the money it is throwing at getting staff. These are figures I am somewhat familiar with at the moment through the deliberations we have had on the enterprise bargaining agreement with the Australian Education Union. I think the figure, last time it was updated to me, on the number of teacher positions that were vacant in South Australia, at least last week, was 51. I think the figure for Victoria, last time I checked, was 2,583 and I believe New South Wales was north of that.

Yes, Victoria are doing some appealing things around free degrees and money for relocation, but they have about 2,500 vacant spots. I don't want to see this state get into that position and we need to do things to protect ourselves from that happening. One is the point that the Premier just made in the answer to the member for Morialta's earlier question around tech colleges. Tech colleges—the five that we are building in Mount Gambier, Port Augusta, The Heights, Findon and Tonsley Innovation Precinct—are there—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner: How many early childhood spots?

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: They don't like the tech colleges, sir. I think we have established that.

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The minister has the call.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: But the great thing is, sir, every time they criticise them publicly I get a big jump in enrolments, so just go your hardest, please. You can just do the hard work for us.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr Patterson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morphett!

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: The member for Morphett is a gift, sir.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Morialta is warned.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: The member for Morphett is one of the best members of our team I think, actually—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Hartley! Member for Badcoe!

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: You're welcome here anytime because you do some fine work for us. Thank you very much. In essence, we will look at what needs to be done.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Morialta is warned. The minister has the call.

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: If incentives are something that we think need to be done, we will look at that, but we are doing the hard yards here in our state with things like tech colleges and fee-free TAFE to actually grow the pie—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. B.I. BOYER: —to actually grow the pie, rather than focusing on trying to attract workforce numbers from interstate.

The SPEAKER: Minister, your time has expired.