Employment Figures

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:57): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills questions regarding South Australian jobs.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: The federal government's Internet Vacancy Index, which was released recently, showed that South Australia has the worst job creation performance of any state or territory in the commonwealth. Over the last 12 months South Australia's IVI rose by just 0.6 per cent to 53.9 per cent whilst the national IVI increased by 8.2 per cent to a total of 74 per cent. This report follows February's ANZ data, which showed that South Australia recorded the largest fall in newspaper job advertisements across the nation in the last 12 months as well as the lowest overall number of job advertisements of any Australian state over the corresponding period. This is also concerning in the context of the latest ABS employment data, which shows that there are in fact 6,400 fewer jobs now than when Labor promised to create 100,000 jobs five years ago. My questions to the minister are:

1. Can the minister explain why there has been such meagre growth in job advertisements such that we remain the lowest in the nation?

2. Does the government still stand by its commitment to create 100,000 new jobs in South Australia by 2016?

3. Why has the minister left it to her factional rivals and the SDA and Business SA to develop strategies to lower the cost of penalty rates on business, and does she agree with her factional colleague, the Hon. Bob Sneath, that any Labor member speaking in favour of the SDA-Business SA proposal should resign?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:59): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. I can't believe that the Liberal opposition could come into this place and ask a question like this. They wonder about jobs, they come into this place wondering about jobs when their own liberal federal colleagues ran Holden out of town, reneged on our submarine contract and now are siphoning off our air traffic controllers to Victoria, and he dare come into this place and ask where are the jobs? Where are the jobs? What a cheek!

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Mr Kandelaars has the floor.