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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, First Session (52-1)
2011-11-10 Daily Xml
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OLYMPIC DAM EXPANSION

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide) (14:28): I shall be heard in silence, I assume, Madam Speaker? One would hope so.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Where's yours?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Casual Friday, isn't it?

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Thursday. Friday. It's all the same to me.

The Hon. T.R. Kenyon interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Well, I notice a number of members not wearing ties. My question is to the Minister for Manufacturing, Innovation and Industry. Can the minister—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I have never asked a Dorothy Dixer in this house.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Member for Port Adelaide, we will miss you but can you please get to the substance of the question?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Can the minister please inform the house of the steps the government is taking to maximise local participation from the Olympic Dam expansion project?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Minister for Manufacturing, Innovation and Trade, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (14:29): You were a bit tired and emotional this morning, weren't you? Thank you for that question without notice. I appreciate the member for Port Adelaide's keen interest. Indeed, last night I did get an opportunity to thank the member for Port Adelaide for his efforts in bringing Olympic Dam to life. I think his role and that of the opposition's working together is one that I think future generations will look back on with a great amount of pride. As the proposed Olympic Dam expansion—

The Hon. K.O. Foley interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes; there was a moment last night which is burnt on the back of my brain: it was the sight of the member for Bragg and the member for Port Adelaide embracing. I am not sure who kissed who; it is their little secret.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Point of order.

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: I would desperately like the minister to return to the subject.

The SPEAKER: I uphold that point of order, minister. We are all tired and emotional.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: As the proposed expansion gets near, it is important that we as a government get the strategies right to ensure that local skills, local manufacturing companies, local innovators and local entrepreneurs are ready to benefit from this expansion.

The Olympic Dam task force over the last six years has done a magnificent job in its varied ways of making sure that the project gets the one-stop shop management that it deserves. What we are doing now is making sure that we have an active approach to building value. That value chain has to go right down the sector, right down to the people who are supplying food and vegetables, people supplying services, people supplying clothes, services, training—whatever it might be—for the proposed Olympic Dam expansion and of course other aspects of the mining industry as a whole.

We have to make sure that as a state we maximise the benefit to the people of South Australia because of the mining boom. Only today, in my own electorate, I was at Adelaide Airport opening Boart Longyear's new plant. Boart Longyear is a North American drilling company that was established in the 1880s and now is a global leader in mining exploration services and products operating in 40 countries around the world. I was delighted that they have chosen Adelaide to be their headquarters for their Asia-Pacific operation, servicing Australia as well as large mining economies in countries such as Indonesia and Laos. They have chosen Adelaide, and why did they come to Adelaide? They came to Adelaide because they see a regulatory framework that governs mining that is the best in the world.

They see what is going on with the Olympic Dam indenture and of course other mining projects around the Woomera Protected Area, Yorke Peninsula, Eyre Peninsula and the rest of the state, and they are seeing great opportunities for a boom, so what have they done? They have brought their manufacturing base here, as well as their research and development. This is a real example of how we are going to help manufacturing and mining co-exist, because the most important thing about South Australia is not just our people, and it is not just our minerals in the ground: it is our ability to innovate and manufacture.

I want to congratulate the Premier for bringing all those aspects together into one department, because I think it is very important that we get the maximum benefit for the people of this state. Boart Longyear is just one example of what we can do. Of course, the government has a program called the Thinkers in Residence program to which we brought Professor Goran Roos. Goran Roos is an expert in the field, and I think many members of the parliament and indeed academics of the state have met with Professor Roos and have found his insight into how to build a manufacturing base very revealing. He is pushing the state government, and we have accepted the challenge and I would like to offer the opposition any briefings on some of his views.

That is why the state government is establishing a new arm of the Olympic Dam task force to focus on industry participation and skills development. We want to give industry a voice within the Olympic Dam task force. That is, we want to hear from them and BHP so we can coordinate and make sure that we can match manufacturers, innovators—

Mr Pisoni: They're telling me they want kids to be able to read and write.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sorry?

Mr Pisoni: They're telling me they want kids to be able to read and write: industry—that's what they want when they take them on.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: That's great, and you're a great example for that, too. What we are trying to do is to make sure—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, the member for Bragg!

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: What we want to do, when BHP or any other mining company have an issue that may need some innovation or may need some manufacturing skills, is show them what capability we have here in South Australia and help them with their pre-approval process. Staff from DMITRE and DFEEST will be embedded into the office to make sure that we engage in the processes properly.

This new area of the Olympic Dam task force will have a particular focus on monitoring and facilitating the use of local industries, services and materials, including the implementation of BHP's Industry and Workforce Participation Plan, which I have to approve as indenture minister. The government's role in preparing a skilled workforce within the state suitable for the project is very important; that is why DFEEST is being embedded inside the Olympic Dam task force to make sure that we get the right skills that we need, and I want to thank minister Kenyon for making all of this possible.

Supporting BHP Billiton in developing their service industry hubs or clusters is just one small piece of the proactive work that the government is doing to try and help coordinate industry and mining. What we don't want to see is what is going on in some other jurisdictions in Australia and around the world, where the minerals boom is pretty much lost on the rest of the population. South Australia has a proud manufacturing base. We want to make sure that our manufacturing base booms with the miners and make sure that they can co-exist together.

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