Jobs Growth

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (14:35): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house on how the Malinauskas government is attracting high-tech, high-paid jobs to South Australia?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier, Minister for Defence and Space Industries) (14:36): I thank the member for Gibson for her question. The member for Gibson has made a number of contributions in this state to important causes around improving people's living standards, one of which was as a union official in a related field, representing engineers in this state, of which we need a lot more. The reason why that is important is because when we talk about that level of skill we are talking about more secure jobs and better paid jobs, which is good for living standards. So it is not surprising that the member for Gibson has a particular interest in this subject matter.

Earlier today I had the great privilege to be standing with Vanessa Hudson, the CEO of Qantas, along with the Minister for Trade and Investment, the member for Adelaide, the member for Playford—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —Florey, sorry; I always get them confused—and the Assistant Minister for AI, the former member for Playford and now the member for Florey, and we—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Members on my left will come to order. I can't hear the Premier.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —announced that Qantas will be establishing over 400 jobs in South Australia as a result of the strategic partnership it entered into between the South Australian government and Adelaide University, the new Adelaide University and more specifically the Australian Institute for Machine Learning, which the Assistant Minister for AI has been working with collaboratively. What this will see is not just any types of jobs being established here in South Australia but the majority of those over-400 jobs, starting to be employed next year, are all new. The ones that aren't new are jobs that are being relocated from Sydney, and some from overseas, more specifically India, in an onshoring effort to Australia calling Adelaide home.

The types of jobs that we are talking about are high-end, highly skilled jobs associated with AI and other digital technologies, as a result of the work that we have been doing collaboratively with Qantas. They are establishing a brand-new innovation unit, or product innovation centre, in Adelaide that is all about all things that the customer interfaces with with Qantas digitally, whether it be your Frequent Flyer account, whether it be you making a booking, whether you are following what happens to your baggage when you land: all things digital, all things technical that the customer interfaces with will be based in the product innovation centre which is all about productivity, all about technical innovation, right here in Adelaide.

Those are the sorts of jobs that we are really chasing because they are the ones that improve the state's economic complexity and see demand for labour in a different form that speaks to improved living standards. While we were there today—we made the announcement at the Australian Institute for Machine Learning that was established way back when during the course of the Weatherill government and is located at Lot Fourteen and is now to be formally aligned to the brand-new university—we were talking to students about the work and the studies that they are undertaking in the fields of machine learning and AI.

They spoke almost in a way that we couldn't have scripted better ourselves, talking about how much they love AIML and how much they love studying here. Many of those students had come to Adelaide because of AIML but are now speaking to the fact that they can take those studies and work for a cutting-edge employer, like Qantas, in a practical way. So they can study the most front-end of technology here in South Australia, and then work in the same field here in Adelaide.

It's a strategic partnership, it's a long-term one, and it's innovations like this that have resulted in yet better unemployment numbers like those that came in today that we see and have become accustomed to in South Australia.