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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
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TRAINING AND EMPLOYMENT

Mr ODENWALDER (Little Para) (14:42): My question is to the Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

Mr ODENWALDER: Can the minister inform the house how the government has worked to support improved training and employment outcomes for South Australians?

The Hon. G. PORTOLESI (Hartley—Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:43): When this government came to office, I can report that less than half of the population had a post-school qualification. Sadly, almost one in three students in our public schools were not continuing on to finish school. At the turn of the decade, under the Liberals, the unemployment rate was over 8 per cent, a full two percentage points above the national average, and more than twice as many young people did not have a job when compared to now. Between 1996 and 2001, our state lost almost 4,000 young people, but under this government things have turned around.

Between 2006 and 2011, I can report our state gained nearly 8,000, more than 7,900, young people, and almost 90 per cent of students are continuing to finish school, an outstanding achievement. In 2012, more than 61 per cent of South Australians have a post-school qualification, a more than 10 per cent increase over the rate in 2001 on the back of more than a million training places being offered by this government, and last financial year we had the highest rate of full-time job creation in Australia, with the number created second only to New South Wales.

These achievements do not happen by accident. They are the result of a concerted effort on the part of this government to support South Australians, and our Skills for All training policy is a strong example of this. Following the implementation of Skills for All we are—and I can report—leading the nation in increases in enrolments, operating the most efficient training system in the country, and operating one of the highest quality training systems in the country.

In 2010 we announced an ambitious target to train an additional 100,000 South Australians over the six years from 2010-11 to 2016-17—a target we achieved nearly three years early. Why? Because South Australians know that training makes a massive difference. We know that those with higher-level qualifications are more likely to be employed and are more likely to earn more. We have a strong plan for the future. Our recently announced jobs and skills policy sees the following:

investment in local jobs in partnership with local government and industry;

new partnerships with local employers to identify new job opportunities to ensure that local people have the skills to fill these;

a plan to combat intergenerational joblessness and an entitlement for those who lose their job; and

a greater focus on assisting the manufacturing industry.

Mr Speaker, we have a very strong plan for the future. On jobs and skills, all that the opposition has to offer is a flimsy media release, one that promises that more young people will leave school early in a return to the dark days where one in three of our children did not finish school.

On jobs, all of those opposite have said that they would cut 25,000. We have seen what this means to Australians living interstate—we have seen the impact of Liberal governments. One just needs to talk to colleagues in Queensland and interstate. This is a government that is unashamedly pro jobs and pro investment.

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