APY Lands, Traineeships

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS (14:40): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Aboriginal Affairs a question about traineeships in the APY lands.

Leave granted.

The Hon. T.J. STEPHENS: It has been reported recently that traineeships in South Australia's Anangu Pitjantjatjara Yankunytjatjara lands, designed to upskill young workers in that area, incurring the region's high unemployment rate, are not providing young people with any long-term employment. Given this, my question to the minister is: what measures are the government planning to take to increase employment in the APY lands, specifically in regard to long-term employment beyond school-based training programs?

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) (14:41): I thank the honourable member for his question and his interest in this area. I know that he is a regular visitor to the APY lands and knows firsthand some of the challenges that are experienced. The Trade Training Centre has done a remarkable job providing training. I do not have the figures with me but I saw them recently and it is well over 1,000 both accredited and non-accredited courses that have been attended by people in the APY lands.

There have been some hundreds—I think into the thousands now—nights of accommodation provided at the Trade Training Centre accommodation suites. I know when cabinet was up in the APY lands in the last couple of weeks, the Trade Training Centre accommodation hosted many of the people who were up there as well as providing meals. It was fantastic to see some of the young people from nearby communities such as Pukatja and Kenmore Park undergoing certificate I to II in things like hospitality that were there helping with the service.

I have heard that some who have done some kitchen work and hospitality have gone on to work at places like the resort at Uluru. I also know that with, for example, the just over $100 million road project that has the road coming off the highway through to Pukatja, that there was an employment target of, I think, 30 per cent that has been well and truly exceeded. Things like the Trade Trading Centre are important in providing options for those sorts of contracts that are increasingly having minimum employment targets set of Anangu employment which, together with the Trade Training Centre, will lead to long and ongoing, sustainable careers.