Work-Ready Training Programs

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (15:13): Supplementary: is the Treasurer aware of what the term 'work-ready' means, given that business groups have been raising their concerns that jobseekers are not work ready and therefore cannot access and be granted these traineeships and apprenticeships even where they do exist?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:13): I am delighted, as a former minister for education, to answer this particular question, because one of my bugbears is, if we are talking about skills necessary for young people to be ready for work, what on earth are we doing in our education system? What did the Labor government do for 16 years in our education system?

Our NAPLAN results for literacy and numeracy demonstrate the failure of Labor government policies in the education area for 16 years and for the bulk of the last 40 to 45 years, when Labor government's have controlled, with their colleagues and friends in the education union, the appalling results of literacy. Why not tackle the problems where they are occurring? Rather than fixing the problems afterwards, tackle the problems where they are occurring. That's the fundamental difference between Labor governments and Liberal governments. Labor governments will only do what their friends and colleagues in the left union of the Australian Education Union tell them to do.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: Of course it is. I was the minister 20 years ago who tried to introduce basic skills testing and it was the Labor Party and the Institute of Teachers that fought tooth and nail to introduce the very first literacy and numeracy test into our schools in South Australia. It was the mad lefty unions, supported by the mad lefties within the Labor Party. Members of the right will be very quiet here in the caucus because they know what the mad left are like within the Labor Party.

The PRESIDENT: The Hon. Ms Franks, a point of order.

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: This is a point of order about the use of language with regard to mental health in this place. It has been ruled on before that slurs related to mental health are not parliamentary. I draw your attention to the current Treasurer's language.

The PRESIDENT: There is so much noise, Hon. Ms Franks. To whom is the point of order directed?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I think it is directed to me, Mr President. Certainly, my use of the adjective 'mad' in relation to lefties didn't relate to mental health. If it was taken any way in relation to mental health, I withdraw and apologise. But I am talking about mad in the context of political madness rather than mental health.

So the left within the Institute of Teachers, or now the Australian Education Union, within the Labor Party and the sad direction of education policy, that is where we need to tackle the issue of young people being ready for work. Literacy, numeracy, work ready skills, that is the fundamental promise and premise of a Liberal government's education policy direction. We are not worrying about fixing problems at the end because at that end we will try to find young people jobs and we will give them traineeships and apprenticeships.

But we need to be prepared as a government to tackle the fundamental problems within our education system of making sure our young people leave our school system with literacy skills, numeracy skills and work readiness skills. The Premier just talked about entrepreneurship, innovation, training, for example, to try to provide traineeships or apprenticeships linked with the upper levels of school to try to increase the number of traineeships and apprenticeships in our community. All of these are fundamental changes of policy direction which we expect the Labor Party and the left of the Labor Party and in particular the left of the teachers' union movement to trenchantly oppose.

The Liberal government was elected on a clear mandate to make change. These are the sorts of changes the people of South Australia elected the new government to implement on 17 March. The sort of policies that you're clinging on to from 16 years of failed Labor governments were thoroughly rejected on 17 March.