Industry Job Losses

The Hon. J.E. HANSON (15:13): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment, regarding industry job losses.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.E. HANSON: Architecture firm Hassell, which was established in Adelaide in 1938, has announced that it will be shutting down its Adelaide office after completing its remaining projects here at the end of 2021. This is disappointing news, as are recent announcements from Singapore Airlines and Emirates, who have decided to shut their respective Adelaide offices as well. The minister has repeatedly told this chamber how he likes to be a deal-maker. He shakes hands and makes deals at restaurants; he flies interstate and says hello to people, many of whom can't recall meeting him. My questions to the minister are: when did the minister first discover that Hassell would be leaving South Australia? What advocacy, if any, did the minister provide to try to retain Hassell in our state?

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (Minister for Trade, Tourism and Investment) (15:14): I thank the honourable member for his ongoing interest in the South Australian economy, in particular the architecture firm Hassell. It was disappointing to read in the paper that Hassell is leaving, although three of their principals are staying here and starting up, if you like, consultancies, so I suspect that Hassell will still be quite well represented here, albeit not having the presence it has had in the past. It is disappointing, but its head office interstate has made a decision to close the Adelaide office. However, I am sure they will still be pitching for work. The article in the paper showed a number of great iconic projects that Hassell has worked for.

It is interesting also that, if you look at the context of the honourable member's question, he talked about Singapore Airlines and Emirates Airlines. I think Singapore Airlines has had the same corporate structure in place for 50 years. I have met with Singapore Airlines and they have wanted to change their corporate structure, but the honourable member forgets that it was last year that Singapore Airlines brought their new A350 aircraft to Adelaide—the first airport in Australia to have that service—because they were giving us extra capacity to fly people and freight between Adelaide and Singapore.

They are our longest serving international airline partner, and that partnership is as strong as ever. With the digital age we have, we do not necessarily need to have their marketing team here in Adelaide. Emirates are the same, they have shifted their marketing team, but we are still extremely well serviced with a high-quality service from South Australia and Adelaide to Dubai. Only recently, Qatar announced bringing their A350-1000 plane, which has an extra 16 per cent capacity. Even though we see some changes in the on-ground presence of the staff, we are getting an increased service from those particular organisations.

When the honourable member talks about job losses, I am reminded, when I look out of my office window (and members opposite would be very familiar with that office because it was the office of their very good friend the former minister Martin Hamilton-Smith), and one can only see a little bit east, a little bit west and mostly south, there are 11 cranes on the skyline—none of them funded by the taxpayers. I could not see towards the north, but I know that there are probably another three or four cranes. We have an unprecedented number of cranes on the skyline.

I will refer members to a little article about job losses and economic activity, and a headline recently in The Advertiser, 'Adelaide's CBD development: The CBD's $1 billion building boom to continue into 2019.' More than $1 billion! I won't read the article because it would be inappropriate to read an article and quote from an article in The Advertiser, but it goes on to talk about the boom we are having—all the hotel development that is coming. We have the Sofitel under construction, we have the Hyatt—a whole range. We have the world's tallest student accommodation building.

I think that it takes a little while for the business community and the global community to realise that there has been a change of management in South Australia. It is about 18 months, and now they are starting to say, 'This is a place to invest.' As you well know, Mr President, we are seeing record numbers of international students and record tourism expenditure. With the Joyce review, we have identified our nine key sector targets. You have all heard the Premier talk about space, that is going to be one of the most exciting new sectors. There will be jobs aplenty in the space sector.

We know about defence and the opportunities that will abound over the next decade from a defence point of view. Then you have some of the emergence areas, like the creative industries, the high-tech sector and then, of course, you have the fintech sector.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY: My colleague interjects, 'Tell us about blockchain'. There simply isn't enough time today to talk about blockchain, but there are some really exciting times, and it is a sad day that the opposition continually wants to be negative and talk down this state, when in fact we have some unprecedented exciting times ahead and I can't wait to get back and tell the chamber about all the good news.

The PRESIDENT: Let's be very clear everyone, I would not have allowed the clock to be talked down if it weren't for a Liberal Dorothy Dixer coming next on the whipping sheet.