Woolworths

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (14:46): A supplementary: will the state government be offering any assistance whatsoever for the workers who are affected?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:46): We will be relying on the very strong Stronger Transitions program. Minister Pisoni has indicated that in certain circumstances some workers may well qualify for the $202 million Skilling South Australia retraining fund—a huge investment from state and federal governments in terms of providing further skills and training for workers in South Australia. He has indicated that in some limited circumstances there will be the capacity for retraining in those programs. As I said, there is a transition program that the commonwealth government runs.

But one would hope that a big employer like Woolworths Big W—and again, as Mr Peak has indicated, they renegotiated in their EB a 30-week redundancy provision which he indicated was much more generous than other redundancy provisions available for other workers who lose their jobs. It will be a combination of those seeking retirement, who will have a 30-week redundancy, or those seeking ongoing employment. We hope Woolworths Big W will be able to assist as many of those workers as possible in relation to finding alternative employment opportunities.

If the member is asking the question: will the taxpayers of South Australia be funding specific assistance programs such as the ones the former government funded for some workers affected at Castalloy? The answer is no.