Question Time

Employment Figures

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Leader of the Opposition) (14:19): I seek leave to give a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Employment a question about jobs.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: Given today's ABS figures on the regional labour force conditions outlined significant increases in unemployment rates—for example, in Adelaide's south, up from 7.1 per cent to 8.4 per cent; the Barossa, Yorke and Mid North, I think that is even worse, up from 3.2 per cent to 7.8 per cent; and the South-East region, the minister's home patch, up from 6.5 per cent to 7.1 per cent—can the minister please outline specific job creation initiatives the government has implemented in these regions to address the jobs crisis these regions are facing? Please can he not give us the same diatribe about factors affecting world commodity prices and job losses that have not yet happened?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:20): I thank the honourable member for his question and note the figures that are used that I think are the raw data, I assume. Is he nodding? Is this the adjusted data supplied by the ABS?

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway interjecting:

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: So, these are the data from a very small sample size often when it is broken down into the different demographics into the different areas. I assume the Hon. David Ridgway, in extracting this information, read some of the warnings that come with using data from these cells from the ABS data—for example, the warnings from many of these cells, because it gets to such a small sample size when you aggregate it to various regions and segments in those regions—which state, 'Many cells in this data release for these individual regions, and even more so for subsets of these regions, use very small sample size and often include the warnings "estimate is subject to sampling variability too high for most practical purposes".'

I am sure the honourable member will let us know if he has used these figures and which of those figures are subject to a sampling size too high for most practical purposes. I am sure he is aware of the figures that he is using here, so I am sure he will inform the chamber of those. There is no doubt that we are facing very significant challenges. We have talked about these in this place a number of times, not just in metropolitan Adelaide but right across South Australia.

There are different challenges that different regions are facing, but much of South Australia is facing a variety of challenges, and the honourable member is quite right in pointing out that some of those challenges have factors that are beyond any government's control, such as world commodity prices. Some of the factors can be helped and influenced by government. I note that there is a $15 million a year Regional Development Fund that minister Brock administers. I do not have all the details on those but I will get more information on the numerous companies and the numerous industries that have been helped out by this fund.

The honourable member talked about the VTT yesterday or the day before that is administered by the Minister for Forests that has provided a lot of funding to companies in the South-East in terms of the timber industry. I have visited a number of times NF McDonnell & Sons and have seen the very good use that funding has gone towards to improve the work that is happening there. They are significantly increasing the workforce at NF McDonnell and putting on extra shifts. The government will look to support those industries that have the capacity to grow and create jobs, as we have done and as we will continue to do.

Another fantastic example is the support for Sundrop Farms which we have talked about here—significant government funding to support an industry that has the potential to grow, a new innovative industry, using solar thermal technology to power the operations of what will be 20 hectares of growing tomatoes and also supplying desalinated water. Where there are opportunities to support industry, we will do that and we will do what we can to help such industries grow and to support job growth.