Lend Lease

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:22): I seek leave to ask the minister in her dual capacity as the minister for employment and information economy a question about IT jobs in South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD: I have been reliably informed that a company which we once called Baulderstone but now call Lend Lease, as they have been absorbed into the bigger company, is considering laying off its entire IT department here in South Australia, which has been openly discussed with their staff for six or eight weeks or so here in their Adelaide office. That, as I said, would be around the 20 to 30 job mark here in South Australia. Those final numbers are yet to be determined, but it is certainly in that order. My questions to the minister are:

1. Was the minister aware?

2. If so, is the minister in contact with the company and in negotiation with them?

3. If not, will the minister undertake to appropriately contact the company and see if anything can be done in order to keep these high-end jobs here in South Australia?

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) (15:23): I thank the honourable member for his most important question. I don't believe I have been made aware of this particular organisation. Obviously, it is always a concern to hear of any job losses here in South Australia. I am happy, obviously, to look into that particular example and do what we can to assist, particularly in terms of training and retraining and assisting those workers to be able to reposition themselves to gain work with other organisations; that is obviously something we would seek to do.

In terms of the bigger picture, this government works very hard—it has a jobs plan—to deliver things like significant tax reform to assist businesses. We are also working hard on our strategy to transition our economy—an economy that has relied very heavily on the traditional automotive sector—into more high-tech IT and other industries where value adding occurs and there are job opportunities. So, we continue to work those strategies very hard, but I am happy to follow up on that particular example and with those particular workers, and assist them in any way we can.