Cities and Regions Wellbeing Index

The Hon. J.S. LEE (Deputy Leader of the Opposition) (14:33): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking a question of the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development about the wellbeing index in regional South Australia.

Leave granted.

The Hon. J.S. LEE: On 8 May 2024, SGS Economics and Planning released its Cities and Regions Wellbeing Index, which is a comprehensive and independent analysis of the wellbeing of 518 local government areas across Australia. The wellbeing index assesses LGAs on seven indicators, including economy, income and wealth, employment, knowledge and skills, housing, health, equality, community and work-life balance and environment.

The results of the wellbeing index showed that a number of LGAs in regional South Australia ranked amongst the lowest in the country for overall wellbeing, with four LGAs ranked in the bottom 10 per cent and 14 ranked in the bottom 20 per cent. All are in regional South Australia. The wellbeing index also reported the low wellbeing score in regional South Australia was due to poor outcomes in health, employment and skills. My questions to the minister are:

1. Will the minister admit the Malinauskas Labor government's poor record on addressing regional health, employment and housing issues resulted in a poor rating of regional South Australia's wellbeing?

2. Given the large number of areas in regional South Australia that have ranked low in wellbeing, with four LGAs ranked in the bottom 10 per cent and 14 ranked in the bottom 20 per cent, what measures will the minister for regional South Australia introduce to provide better supports for regional communities?

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN (Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, Minister for Forest Industries) (14:35): I thank the honourable member for her question. I think the fact that many regional areas are disadvantaged in a range of different measures is well known. That goes not just to our state but in various places around the country. The Malinauskas Labor government is so determined to be connected with our regional areas with, for example, our country cabinet being just one way that we make sure that all of our ministers are getting out—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. C.M. SCRIVEN: —into the regions and listening to local businesses, local councils and local residents. That is how we have been able to announce and begin implementing so many very important initiatives for regional South Australia. For example, the measures that were referred to by the honourable Deputy Leader of the Opposition included health, employment and skills. Members should be aware of our very significant investments in various areas in country health in terms of upgrading emergency departments, increasing the number of ambulances and health staff and we of course continue to do that.

The State Prosperity Project is a very important project that is going to be transformational for the Upper Spencer Gulf, which will of course impact on employment in a very positive way. Similarly, investments in the South-East of the state—for example, around forestry—will also be expected to have very significant positive impacts on employment. So much of our investment is around skills with the fee-free TAFE places that have been implemented and of course in the federal budget there was funding again for that, and so that's something that we continue to be very active in delivering.

Technical colleges that we are building in Port Augusta and in Mount Gambier will have a very specific effect on skills. We know, through our work with industries in regional areas, how much they value the opportunities that are being created through that as well as, for example, the upgrades to various TAFEs. The Forestry Centre of Excellence in the South-East is another indicator of the investment and the importance that the Malinauskas Labor government puts on to our regional areas.

In my own direct portfolio of course we have the Thriving Regions Fund, which includes both grants for larger types of projects, such as the Enabling Infrastructure strand, the Strengthening Industries strand and the Thriving Communities strand. I was fortunate, recently, to be able to announce many of the Thriving Communities small grants, which are grants from $20,000 to $50,000 that are all about building community, assisting organisations and groups to remain connected with each other, which is so important in supporting wellbeing.