Manufacturing Works

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (14:45): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Leader of the Government on the subject of Manufacturing Works.

Leave granted.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Senior executives at the Department of State Development recently made clear two issues. One was that even though Manufacturing Works was a 10-year approved government strategy there is zero funding provided in the forward estimates from 2018-19 onwards, so for the remaining four or five years of the program.

Secondly, as was outlined, I think, in a question earlier in the week from my colleague the Hon. Mr McLachlan, they also confirmed that there was to be a second review of Manufacturing Works and its effectiveness or otherwise. The executives also confirmed that they expected to have the results of that assessment, that is, of the 17 separate component programs and the overall program itself, concluded by the end of June, just four weeks away. My two questions to the minister are:

1. If Manufacturing Works is a 10-year program, why was zero funding provided by the minister and the government from 2018-19 onwards?

2. Has the government now appointed a consultant to do the review? If so, what is the name of the consultant, and is the minister still committed, as his senior executives were, that the results of that review will be concluded by the end of June?

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) (14:47): I thank the honourable member for his questions about the South Australian government's manufacturing programs. I might answer the second one first. In relation to the review, there was, as is often talked about in this chamber, particularly by the Hon. Andrew McLachlan, an early review of some aspects of Manufacturing Works, the famous Frost and Sullivan report. The department is committed to another review of programs under Manufacturing Works. The review will assess the administrative performances and outcomes, review the data gathered for each program and, as the first one did, survey participants across various programs.

I am advised that EconSearch has been engaged for the review and is expected to deliver its findings and recommendations in the middle of this year, as I think the honourable member mentioned in his question. We talked before about the Frost and Sullivan review at the start of some of these programs. This review will review some of the programs towards the end of the programs, to ensure that they are still meeting their policy and strategic objectives.

In terms of funding for the out years from this budget cycle or beyond, they will be in part guided by the results of the review, but also we will look to see what is needed at the time. We are an economy in transition. That is exactly why, as I have talked about regularly in this chamber, we committed $80 million in the last budget to the new industries in a transitioning economy: the South Australian Early Commercialisation Fund, which the Hon. David Ridgway is very fond of, the South Australian Venture Capital Fund and other initiatives. We will use the review as one of the bases to look at funding and what happens to funding for programs under Manufacturing Works, but we know that we need funding in a whole range of areas and that is why we committed $80 million in the last budget.