House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-11-13 Daily Xml

Contents

Job Creation

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:47): I would like some clarification from the Premier: is he saying that the original jobs commitment, for 100,000 jobs by 2016, is now going to be replaced by a commitment of just 5,000 jobs by 2018?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:48): It looks like we're going to have to do this the long way. Back in August, we made an economic statement about the future of South Australia. It drew on the collective wisdom of 2,500 South Australians, from business, academia and the broader community. All of those people asked us to do a number of things, and one was to set out an economic vision for South Australia, which we did.

It asked us to also be clear about the priorities we sought to achieve, which we did. Now we are taking each of those priorities and putting more meat on the bone of those priorities by putting very clear stakes in the ground about where we want to be in three years' time. In each of the 10 areas, there will be objectives that we are going to pursue. We have five sectors: the mining sector, the health sector, the food sector, the tourism sector, the international student sector. They will have job targets in each of them. They will have objectives about how we want to change and grow those sectors. All of those things, all of those discrete components, will come together to allow us to achieve our objectives.

This approach we are seeking—an active approach for government working in partnership with industry and academia—is one that has been urged upon us by no less than the Business Council of Australia, which is urging this approach on all governments across our nation. We are listening. We are listening to the result of the election, unlike the opposition leader who seems incapable of realising that he actually lost the last election.

The SPEAKER: The Premier is not responsible to the house for the Leader of the Opposition.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: No, but if he could just perhaps stop bleating while I am giving a contribution it would allow me to develop my answer. To answer the opposition leader's question directly, of course it is not simply an objective of 5,000 jobs. There will be a series of objectives across each of those priorities. They will all be directed at the underlying purpose of job growth in the South Australian economy because we believe that jobs give dignity, they give purpose and they give an economic capacity for people to realise ambitions for themselves and their families. That's why we are the Labor Party. That's why jobs are at the centre of our project.