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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-09-18 Daily Xml
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MANUFACTURING SECTOR

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:20): My question is again to the Premier. Since Labor was re-elected in 2010, why have over 13,000 South Australian manufacturing jobs been lost, the highest proportion of manufacturing job losses on the mainland?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Minister for State Development) (14:20): If the Leader of the Opposition had bothered to pay any attention to the speech that we made at the opening of the parliament, she would recall the fact that South Australia actually has one of the highest proportions of manufacturing workforce in the nation. So, of course, the burden of adjustment—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: No, we still do.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Premier, have you finished?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Obviously, we have a high proportion of our economy that is comprised of manufacturing, and the truth is that we have historically high Australian currency. We have an Australian currency—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Members on my left will behave. You will either behave, be quiet or leave the chamber.

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Unley, order! You will not get another warning: you will leave. Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: For those opposite, the high Australian dollar has the effect of making imports cheaper so, those manufacturing businesses which are import-competing businesses—I would have thought the member for Unley, who has presided over a bit of loss of manufacturing employment in his time, would have actually been aware of precisely the factors that are bearing on this question, that is—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Madam Speaker, in a globalised economy where trading barriers have been removed and circumstances of a high Australian dollar, import-competing businesses are under pressure and, indeed, those manufacturers that rely upon exports for their prosperity face the complexity of a higher export price for their goods overseas. So, of course, our manufacturing sector is under pressure. Of course, we bear a disproportionate proportion of that—

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Norwood, order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —of that burden because we have a relatively higher proportion of manufacturing in our economy. That is why we chose as one of the seven priorities for the future of our state the promotion of—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —well, I hope you can recite them all—the advanced manufacturing sector as a key priority for our state. Because we believe in this. We believe that as an economy in this state we want to continue to make things. We believe that, for a balanced economy that is going to be well placed to weather the ups and downs of global turbulence, we need an advanced manufacturing sector that competes on the basis of value, not on the basis of cost. We have an advanced manufacturing paper which is presently the subject of consultation and we invite those opposite to make contributions to that paper. We have a Thinker in Residence, Göran Roos, who is assisting us with strategies and policies—

Mrs Redmond: Another great thinker!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I think you will find that a number of your backbench think that he is actually a very significant thinker who is advancing very positive ideas for the future prosperity of the state. Those are the things that we are doing to address the disproportionate effect of the global financial crisis and, in particular, the resources boom and the effect that is having on our currency and on our manufacturing sector.

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