Regional Workforce Shortage

The Hon. J.S. LEE (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:37): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before directing a question to the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development about regional businesses.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: On 20 November, an ABC News article was published with the headline 'General Skilled Migration visa changes making it tough for regional SA businesses to find workers'. The article writes that the Pearl Continental restaurant in Naracoorte has been advertising for more than two months for workers to replace three of their chefs whose visas were ending but has not had a single applicant. The federal member for Barker, Tony Pasin, was quoted as saying:

As a result people are not remaining in regional communities, they're leaving for the cities, and we should have a migration policy that encourages people to live, work, and raise their families in regional Australia.

Naracoorte Lucindale Mayor Patrick Ross was quoted as saying:

These family-owned businesses are going to struggle. It's an absolute disaster. We need to get this turned around as quickly as we can for the sake of small businesses in regional SA.

My questions to the minister are:

1. No doubt the minister is aware of the workforce shortages in regional SA; therefore, what consultation has she had with businesses in the regions facing worker shortages problems?

2. What strategies has the minister put in place to address these shortages and the concerns of business owners and operators in the regional area?

3. What representation formally has the minister made to the federal government to formulate a response to ensure the SA regional economy and businesses remain open and not be abandoned?

4. When was the recent meeting or briefing that the minister had to ensure the state and federal migration program is adequate to assist regional businesses with their needs for skilled workers? Can the minister outline the details to the chamber?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:39): I thank the honourable member for her question. It's certainly something that I have discussed many times in this place, which is around workforce particularly for regional businesses and regional industries. It's something that as a government we have worked very hard on. Some of the ways that this has been raised is of course through country cabinet: that very, very useful forum.

An honourable member: What are you doing about it?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: Well, one of the questions from the honourable member was when and how I have spoken with regional industries, so I am answering that, and yet, because we dare to mention country cabinet, we start to get interjections from those opposite.

During country cabinet, and all of the meetings that are associated with that—so not just the public forums but the individual meetings that we have either with industry groups or with individual businesses—workforce is, of course, a key topic of discussion. This is an issue that throughout the country is a challenge and throughout regional areas around the country is a challenge.

One of the key issues that is related to that is housing. We do hear stories of businesses that have been able to attract staff to take up the roles but then end up not doing so because of a lack of suitable housing. That is one of the reasons that the Malinauskas Labor government has established the Office for Regional Housing, which is a key initiative to make sure that we can work with local government associations, with regional development associations, with industry, with not-for-profits, etc., so that we can establish fit-for-purpose solutions in terms of regional housing, because we know that regional housing is a key enabler of solving workforce issues.

In relation to some of the other questions that the honourable member asked, workforce is a topic for the agricultural ministers' meetings, which are meetings of both the federal and state and territory agricultural ministers, and there is a piece of work that is proceeding on that in regard to workforce, particularly for agricultural industries, most of which are in regional areas.