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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2016-11-16 Daily Xml
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South Australian Economy

Ms WORTLEY (Torrens) (15:04): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier advise the house about recent visits the government has made to South Australian businesses and any new information about the performance of our state's economy?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (15:04): Just this week, we had another cabinet meeting outside the CBD. We have held 17 of them, and we are hosting our third country cabinet meeting this week in Whyalla. As I said on Monday, we were out at Mayfield Industries at Edinburgh, who told us about their growing business and how they are connecting to international markets by exporting switches to the Asia-Pacific region. They are also playing a massive role in the renewable energy industry—remember, that industry that those opposite wanted to shut down. This is another great opportunity for us.

The week before we were in the San Giorgio La Molara Community Centre, and we heard from La Casa Del Formaggio, who told us about the benefits that they are seeing from the WorkCover reforms and how they have grown a family business from about three people to 120 people, with further plans to grow over the next five years. What we also have seen just today is the release of the ANZ Stateometer, which says that South Australia's economy is performing above the national trend. It's also demonstrating that, on a long-term trend basis, South Australia has returned to trend growth and it's accelerating—and it's accelerating.

All this is at a time when we have had the federal Liberal Party drive Holden out of South Australia and pocket the $700 million subsidy that they had and not give any of it back for labour market adjustment programs, and we have had the dithering about the Future Submarines project, which has cost us dearly in relation to jobs. So, despite all those headwinds, we are now at trend growth and accelerating, creating 9,000 jobs in the last 12 months in the South Australian economy, despite those opposite and their lack of support. It would be good if they jumped on board to lever some of this $700 million out of the hands of the federal government that they have pocketed through the closure of Holden's and the lack of subsidies for the automotive transport assistance scheme.

One of the reasons we are seeing this is because of the extraordinary taxation, planning and WorkCover reforms, which have provided opportunities for South Australian businesses to grow their businesses, opportunities that are growing in a number of the growth sectors in the economy—the health industry, the food and wine industries, the renewable energy sector, our tourism sector and, of course, our international students. All these sectors of the South Australian economy are exciting and growing, and we are at trend—accelerating.

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