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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-05-03 Daily Xml
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EMPLOYMENT FIGURES

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:50): My question is once again to the Premier. Does the Premier stand by his government's election promise to create 100,000 new jobs, given that there are now fewer people in full-time work than when this promise was made? We have recently heard about the loss of 212 jobs at Castalloy, 250 jobs at Kimberly-Clark, 150 jobs at Qantas Catering, 100 jobs at Holden (and more to come), and today the loss of 85 jobs at Orlando Wines, and further job loses at 1st Fleet.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Minister for State Development) (14:51): Of course that remains our objective. Our objective is to grow the South Australian economy and to grow jobs. That is why today we have put so much effort into growing our defence industry. The Leader of the Opposition outlines a catalogue of, in a sense—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Well, disappointing decisions that have been made by businesses to shed jobs. Of course they are disappointing. At the same time, I am down at the Australian Submarine Corporation, where I am being told that hundreds and hundreds of people will be recruited to the next phase of the air warfare destroyer contract, a direct decision that was promoted and won by the endeavours of this government, and that is unarguable.

As we obviously await the decision that is to be taken on the Olympic Dam project, we know that an estimated 25,000 jobs in just that project alone is available once the go button is pushed on the Olympic Dam expansion. I just chose two industries: the defence industry and the mining industry. Our future prospects are bright in this state.

All of this is at a time when there is an enormous amount of global uncertainty. We have an unemployment rate at the moment that would be the envy of many nations in the world. We have weathered the global financial crisis in a way that many in the world would see as an extraordinary result. Just the other evening, when I was at the mineral resources annual conference, we heard the keynote speaker from PricewaterhouseCoopers saying that this part of the world—

Mr PISONI: Point of order: the question was whether the Premier stood by the government's promise to create 100,000 new jobs made during the election campaign. That was the question. The—

The SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Unley. You will remember that the Premier was not the Premier at the time.

Mr PISONI: —Premier is debating and not speaking in relevant terms.

The SPEAKER: You are now debating your point of order. I am sorry, the Premier can answer the question as he chooses, and he has related it to the subject, by my standards.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Just so that the link is apparent to those opposite and calms them down while they hear the point, what I am about to talk about is some substantial investment advice. I am talking about future prospects for growth in jobs in South Australia. At this conference there was a keynote speaker from PricewaterhouseCoopers, which is interesting in itself. The international global expert for PricewaterhouseCoopers is located in Melbourne on the basis that he understands that this part of the world has the greatest prospects for mining in the world.

They have decided to locate their global champion here in Australia. He looks at the prospects that exist in India and China and says that many of the investors in the world are looking for a place to invest which is safe but is located closely to the Asian success stories. Those analysts understand that businesses that are seeking a safe haven for investment want to invest not necessarily directly in China and India, where there are some risks, but in those countries they know are going to be the direct beneficiaries of the growth in China and India. So they see this as the part of the world to be in. To conclude, the reason why this is such an important—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —observation is that he noted in his speech that the South Australian mining jurisdiction was the easiest jurisdiction to do business anywhere in Australia. So we have this great prospectivity, a fantastic—

Mr GARDNER: Point of order, Madam Speaker. The Premier has now taken four minutes to say the word no, and that would usually take only one second.

The SPEAKER: Thank you. There is no point of order. Sit down, member for Morialta.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: If I can conclude, Madam Speaker, our commitment to create 100,000 jobs was, of course, over six years. We will continue to pursue that objective—

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —and the decision that was made today, and the announcements that will be made throughout the course of this year, will show South Australians that we are well on track.

Mrs REDMOND: On a point of order, Madam Speaker, I was not aware that, under the new standing orders, the Premier got other than four minutes like the rest of the government.

The SPEAKER: Again, you can have a look at the clock here. It said that he had one second to go.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! You can have a look here now—it is still up there—if you have a problem.

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