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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-06-04 Daily Xml
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Vocational Education and Training

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:32): My question is to the Premier. How does having the worst outcome for unemployed VET graduates equate with the high levels of efficiency in South Australia's training system announced by the Premier yesterday? Yesterday the Premier told this house that the report on government services showed South Australia's training and further education system consistently comes at the very highest levels in terms of efficiency of the system. Yet when we take a look at the report on government services, it actually shows that South Australia has the worst outcomes in the country for unemployed VET graduates.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:33): When you increase the general level of skills of your population, as we have through our Skills for All arrangements, which have actually increased during the course of the application of Skills for All, the increase in the level of skills pre Skills for All—training investment through Skills for All for the 2013 calendar year increased 44 per cent on pre Skills for All levels. Over the same training period, training investment in regional South Australia increased by 62.1 per cent, investment in non-metropolitan regions accounted for, and TAFE students in relation to government funded schools, funded VETs in South Australia, was the highest in the nation, and we have lifted the general level of skills in our community by in the order of 5 per cent, one of the highest in the nation.

Of course, the capacity of our students, after they gain their qualifications, to obtain employment depends on the general levels of economic activity and the jobs that are going on in our economy, and of course those two things are related. In terms of the things that we can directly control, the efficiency, the regard with which these courses are had by employers, the state of satisfaction of the students themselves with the services, all of those things rate amongst the highest in the nation.

Once again, the Leader of the Opposition comes in here and in many and varied ways repeats the nature of the challenge; that is, that South Australia has challenges in terms of declining industries and the growth of jobs sufficient to ensure that its citizens—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Can I take you back where the week started, to your review: the reason why you are so unutterably unsuccessful in relation to your performance is that you do not have a single idea to advance—

Mr GARDNER: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Point of order.

Members interjecting:

Mr GARDNER: I fear that his comments about you were debase and strange.

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer is called to order.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: You can't think ahead.

The SPEAKER: The Treasurer is warned a first time. The member for Chaffey is warned a first time. The member for Mount Gambier is warned a second and final time. The Premier hasn't finished.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Part of the response to improving the capacity of our economy to grow jobs is to ensure that we reform government so that all of the service systems of government are as efficient and working as effectively as possible, but reforming government agenda is difficult work. It involves the planning system, it involves the bureaucracy, it involves our regulatory systems, it involves our TAFE system, and that is what we are embarked upon: reforming our TAFE system. If there is an alternative proposition that those opposite want to advance—

Mr Marshall: Competition. Competition.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: We are further advanced along the process of competition than any state or territory in the nation.

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader will be quiet.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Any state or territory in the nation. That is an irresistible proposition. It is only Victoria and South Australia that have taken these steps to reform their TAFE systems in this way and South Australia is more advanced along that path and WorkReady takes us even further down that path. They are the simple facts of the matter. Instead of simply, when we do the difficult work of reform, which of course involves change, which necessarily involves people engaged in complaint, instead of just joining in, why don't you for once recognise a quality reform when it's actually occurring and get in behind it.

The SPEAKER: I am very reluctant to remove the leader from the house under the sessional order and I give the leader a lot of scope and do not warn him when I probably should do so. I ask him to exercise some restraint.

The Hon. P. Caica interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Thank you for that advice, member for Colton, and I hope you will receive with equanimity your first warning. Leader.

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