Question Time

Manufacturing Sector

The Hon. J.S. LEE (15:08): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation a question about targets in the manufacturing sector.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: According to the government's 30-year plan, the government has set a target of creating an additional 52,400 manufacturing jobs. Yet, with the 30-year plan released in February 2010, the track record of manufacturing jobs does not reflect the government's targets. For example, the ABS Labour Force Data revealed that full-time manufacturing jobs in SA have decreased from 68,000 in 2010 to 61,000 in 2014; that is 7,000 manufacturing jobs lost within four years. InDaily recently demonstrated a set of statistics from 1985. It shows that in 1985, around 100,000 people were working in manufacturing in South Australia. In 2013, though, that figure had fallen to 74,000 and it continues to drop. My questions are:

1. What new strategies will the minister introduce to address the continual jobs decline within the manufacturing sector in South Australia?

2. With 26,000 manufacturing jobs lost since 1985, can the minister explain how the government intends to reach its manufacturing jobs target in the 30-year plan?

3. Can the minister outline where the 52,400 additional manufacturing jobs projected by the government will come from?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation) (15:09): I thank the honourable member for her question. Manufacturing jobs are exceptionally important to South Australia. I think the sector recognises that manufacturing jobs, as we are going forward in South Australia, are going to look very different, as the honourable member and others will be aware.

Over the past half a century, South Australia has manufactured things like cars, fridges and washing machines. That is not going to be the future for manufacturing in South Australia. We are already seeing a transition to advanced manufacturing. We are seeing a transition to manufacturing on value rather than on cost. So, although manufacturing has always been a cornerstone of South Australia's economy and it remains critical, we are going to have a very different manufacturing environment.

In 2012, the state government introduced the Manufacturing Works program. The Manufacturing Works program is a comprehensive advanced manufacturing strategy to accelerate the transition of manufacturing towards higher value-added activities, as I said, competing on value and not cost alone. The Manufacturing Works programs are designed to assist firms in responding to the economic conditions that threaten to erode manufacturing, and are consistent with both the state government's economic priority to grow through advanced manufacturing, and particularly our economic priority No. 6: growth through innovation.

To date, more than 350 manufacturing firms have participated and/or received support under the Manufacturing Works program. If it assists the member, I am happy to run through some of the very specific strategies in the Manufacturing Works program. One of the pillars of our Manufacturing Works program in innovation is the innovation voucher program that was established in October 2012 as part of the Manufacturing Works initiative to foster innovation in the manufacturing sector and to drive ongoing collaboration.

The program has a grant budget of $1.1 million, with $600,000 contributed from the Manufacturing Works program for the grants. To date, 51 applications have been approved for funding of a total of $1,753,990. Of these projects, 17 are currently in progress, 30 have been completed, and there were three programs that were cancelled. Of the 30 completed projects, 17 have completed design development, 20 have completed prototypes, 14 have completed testing and validation, and six have completed field trials or customer trials.

There is also the Small Business Innovation Research program, that has a budget of $2.123 million in the two years to 30 June 2015. The SME innovation capacity package is another arm of our Manufacturing Works program, designed to help make that transition. There are a number of other programs that I will not go into in great detail here, but I am happy to speak further if the honourable member wants to ask me a supplementary about it.