University Places

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (14:36): My question is to the Acting Premier. Can the Acting Premier update the house on the commonwealth government's allocation of university places?

The Hon. S.E. CLOSE (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Minister for Industry, Innovation and Science, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Climate, Environment and Water) (14:36): Yes, I bear good news for South Australia, specifically for young people in South Australia but also for preparation for the nuclear shipbuilding project.

As members will be well aware, we have been undertaking a lot of work on the profile for the workforce for the defence industry and undertook a task force alongside the commonwealth government. We have then determined a plan at each stage of education and career choices to support getting more people working in the defence industry right from school, including, of course, the five technical colleges the Minister for Education is busily building, through to vocational training, where there has been a dramatic overhaul of vocational training with much welcomed additional expenditure allocated to vocational training and, of course, university places and then early career and mid-career transition to get people to think about taking their skills and applying them into that industry.

The university places one is absolutely crucial because we are, in many ways, dependent on the commonwealth that assigns these commonwealth-supported places, those that are funded by the commonwealth and through HECS. The commonwealth government announced some time ago that they would allocate 800 of the 4,000 places to South Australia. They would do 4,000 additional places that would be STEM focused in order to prepare people to be involved in STEM industries generally but the defence industry specifically, and 800 of those initially were allocated to South Australia as part of the agreement that was signed associated with the prospect of merging two of our universities, which, of course, this parliament assented to very recently.

What we have now been informed, which is excellent news, is that on top of that there are an additional 230 places over the four years that have been allocated to South Australian universities. That means that we have vastly overachieved in the number of places allocated, which I think is to the credit of the universities in South Australia. The fact that 330 were allocated to Flinders again is evidence of the quality of Flinders University, and of course the quality of the offering has convinced the federal government that it is a place worthy of having an additional 330 places, and 700 places were allocated to the University of Adelaide.

Obviously, in a couple of years' time, it will become Adelaide University that will have those positions allocated, but for the first two years those positions, which are spread over four years, will be allocated to the University of Adelaide—far more than any other university. Only about 16 universities were allocated any commonwealth-supported places through this program, and for us to have a quarter of them and for so many to be allocated to the University of Adelaide is evidence not only of the commonwealth government's commitment to continuous shipbuilding and to submarine shipbuilding in South Australia—because they are so committed that they know that this is where they need to invest in having more people educated. As I say, it is also absolutely evidence of the high quality of our universities and the confidence that the federal government has in the merged institution that will be called Adelaide University being able to make these offerings.

I do say, although there are many different degrees that are of value and of importance, it is crucial that we have more people studying STEM subjects all through school and into university because it is that skill set—that knowledge set and that skill set—that will be transformative for our economy. While we do not have as many people studying those subjects, we won't be able to make the leap in complexity that is required in order to have a higher standard of living and greater productivity.