Portable Long Service Leave

The Hon. J.M.A. LENSINK (14:57): My questions are to the Attorney-General regarding portable long service leave:

1. Has the minister received and read the SACOSS report entitled 'The Costs of the South Australian Portable Long Service Leave Scheme'?

2. Has the government made a decision regarding SACOSS recommendations for a temporary rebate?

3. Has the government received any representations that some non-government organisations may already be trading insolvent as a result of liabilities from the portable long service leave scheme?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Deputy Premier, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs, Attorney-General, Minister for Industrial Relations and Public Sector, Special Minister of State) (14:58): I thank the honourable member for her question. In relation to the first question, the SACOSS report, yes, I have received it. I have read the report. I have had discussions with numerous people in the community sector field about the introduction of portable long surface leave into that sector. That was an election commitment of this government, and I think it was an election commitment we made in the lead-up to the 2018 election as well.

In the overwhelmingly male dominated area of construction, there has been for almost half a century a portable long service leave scheme that overwhelmingly men have had access to, recognising the short-term nature of work and contracts in that area. Many other jurisdictions—I think, in fact, the whole of the eastern seaboard—including Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and I think the ACT, have introduced portability of long service leave in the community service sector, an overwhelmingly female dominated area, where people can port over their long service leave into different jobs within that sector. This is a recognition that many of the jobs in this sector are particularly dependent on state or federal government funding, and are often three or five years in nature.

In fact, in the development of the portable long service leave scheme in South Australia, I can remember meeting I think it was a youth worker who had been at the same desk with the same phone number servicing exactly the same clients but with four different companies over 11 years, and had no chance of getting the pro rata long service leave at seven years. This scheme will now ensure that mainly women who are in the community service sector have those same abilities to accrue long service leave, even with short-term contracts within that sector that overwhelmingly men have had for nearly half a century in the construction industry.

In relation to the report and the second question about temporary fees or the state government actually putting in the money for the long service leave contributions of companies in this area, yes, we have considered that and the answer is, no, we haven't made a decision to pay for those organisations or for-profit businesses' contribution to long service leave.

Many of the organisations—all the NGOs, all the for-profit businesses—are already required under Australian accounting standards to make provision for long service leave in some format as it accrues, but we are not aware of any of the other jurisdictions that have had these portable long service leave schemes introduced where the government has paid for the contributions that employers have made in the portable long service leave scheme.

I think the third question was in relation to were we aware of any NGOs who are trading insolvent because of this. I am not aware of NGOs who are trading insolvent—it hasn't been brought to my attention—because of the portable long service leave scheme. Certainly, there have been well-publicised stories of NGOs, some within, for instance, the National Disability Insurance Scheme, who are having financial difficulties for a whole range of reasons that were well before the introduction of our community sector portable long service leave scheme that came into operation on 1 October.