Employment Transition Services

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:28): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Treasurer regarding employment services.

Leave granted.

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: On 16 August 2018, the Treasurer stated, when asked about the government not honouring employment transition services to workers at New Castalloy:

They will not be left on their own, the Liberal Government's been committed to a program of a $200 million investment in skills and training packages, so anyone who is unemployed, Castalloy or anybody else, will have the opportunity for further training opportunities.

Noting that these workers are most unlikely to be undertaking apprenticeships or traineeships, and therefore those programs are not available to them, now that the budget has been delivered and programs to support workers who have been retrenched have been cut, can the Treasurer please advise what specific opportunities and programs will be made available to workers at Castalloy, as per his commitment on 16 August?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:29): Minister Pisoni, both publicly and I think in the parliament, has indicated that there is a range of commonwealth-funded programs which have been provided and which have been made available, not just to the workers of Castalloy. I think one of the problems the former Labor administration had was that they provided special deals and services for, in particular, I think as the minister has described them, highly unionised workplaces and worksites, whereas for a whole variety of other people who lost their jobs in small business and elsewhere, they didn't get the offer of $4,000 or whatever the number was that the former Labor government offered, and what is the difference?

The Liberal government would say to the former Labor government and the Labor opposition now, 'What is the difference between somebody who loses a job in a small business and is looking for further employment and someone who is in a highly unionised worksite like Castalloy?' Why do your mates in those particular worksites get an offer of $4,000 yet some poor soul who loses their job from a small business because they happen to be one or two—

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS: Point of order, Mr President. I believe the Treasurer is accusing you of having mates in the union sector.

The PRESIDENT: We'll leave that point of order. Treasurer, what is your—

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I know for a fact that you do have friends in the union movement, Mr President. I know them by name, so I am sure you wouldn't take that as an offence. But, Mr President, let me direct the questions through you as is appropriate. Why should it be that the mates of the Labor Party and the highly unionised worksites get offered just before the election a $4,000 package deal, yet some poor soul who doesn't happen to be in a highly unionised worksite and a mate of the Labor Party gets zippo. The Labor Party has to explain that sort of anomaly; that is for them. The Liberal government has made it quite clear that there were Labor programs, Labor projects, Labor priorities—

The Hon. R.P. Wortley: You're not very convincing.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: We don't have to convince you, the Hon. Mr Wortley. I do have to convince you, Mr President, but I don't have to convince the Hon. Mr Wortley of the worth or merit of a new government's programs because the people of South Australia are the ones we need to convince, and they are the ones who said, 'Let's get rid of that other lot, the Labor Party.' They chucked them out at the last election, they comprehensively elected a new Liberal government, and they said, 'We've had enough of the Labor Party.'

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Point of order, Mr President.

The PRESIDENT: Yes, Leader of the Opposition.

The Hon. K.J. MAHER: Again, relevance. The question was very specific about why he hates working people so much and supporting people—

The PRESIDENT: That was not the question. You are paraphrasing that question. I am going to allow the Treasurer some leniency. Hon. Ms Scriven, do you have a point of order?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: A supplementary when the Treasurer has finished his—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order! Has the Treasurer finished his answer? Hon. Ms Scriven, do you have a supplementary?