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House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-12-02 Daily Xml
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Trade, Defence and Veterans Portfolios

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Minister for Investment and Trade, Minister for Defence Industries, Minister for Veterans' Affairs) (17:33): As the year approaches an end I just want to round up some of the achievements for agencies for which I am responsible as minister and commend them for their efforts.

I want to start with the investment and trade portfolios because a significant amount has been accomplished—our biggest trade missions ever to India and China and to South-East Asia; a complete revamping of the government's entire approach to investment and trade, including significant reinvestment in investment and trade, as I will explain; $14.3 billion of trade flows creating 65,000 jobs—and increasingly South Australian businesses and jobs depend on getting it right with selling our goods and services overseas.

There have been quite a lot of program highlights in this portfolio, mostly affecting rural producers, manufacturers and service providers, but I would say that one of the major achievements has been putting out a calendar of outbound and inbound missions for 2016 which I hope will become a template for future years going well forward. For too long now, we have been unable, for different reasons, to have regularity and consistency in our outbound and inbound mission profiles.

As a consequence, businesses have not quite known from one month or one year to the next exactly when we will be going, what we will be doing and how we will be doing it. I hope that that consistency will provide some certainty, not only to government but mainly to businesses, who really do want to get overseas and trade but who need to know well in advance so that they can budget for what is planned and what is going on.

The export partnership program has now been turned into a huge success and reinforced, and I hope to have some positive statements to make about the funding for that going forward. The relationship with Shandong is going from strength to strength. We have signed a sister-state relationship with Rajasthan and I could go on for some time about how I think that will bear fruit going forward.

In relation to those 65,000 jobs that depend on overseas activities, if we could grow that number by 10 per cent or even 5 per cent, we would help a lot of families put a meal on the table. I also point to the creation of the investment agency, and I commend Mike Hnyda as CE and also Matt Johnson as director of the trade agency. They and their teams are doing an outstanding job, creating jobs in the future for a lot of South Australian businesses.

I want to quickly move now to defence. A lot hinges on the outcome of the submarine CEP process and Future Frigates. It is very clear that we also need the offshore patrol vessels built in South Australia so that we ease the valley of death, and I hope the commonwealth, under its new leadership, makes the right decisions in that regard.

I have no doubt that, were it not for the intervention of the state government, a decision would have been made to build those 12 submarines offshore around 18 months ago. There is no doubt about that: the media release and the relevant instructions were already drafted. Because of the intervention of the Premier and myself, the state government—with the assistance of Senator Penny Wong, if I could commend her, Senator Stephen Conroy in the federal parliament, and Senator Nick Xenophon—has run a successful campaign to turn that around.

I sincerely hope that we are on track now and that we get those submarines and frigates built not only in Australia but principally in South Australia because I think we are facing some serious competition from WA and elsewhere. This needs to be the home of naval shipbuilding and sustainment, of course. Certainly, Perth and Sydney are where the fleet is based, but this is where things need to be built.

I want to move more generally to the last year and matters going forward. I want to specifically reflect on my decision to resign from the Liberal Party to become an Independent and serve with the state Labor government in a bipartisan and cooperative way. It has been an absolute joy. I have thoroughly enjoyed working with the Premier and the cabinet team. The quality of the discussions is sound and the experience around the table is obvious.

I think in difficult times that the government is doing its best to put the state back on its feet and get it pointing in the right direction. I think the contributions by the member for Frome and myself have been quite pivotal to that because there are two independent voices around the table. In my case, it is a very conservative voice, and that is influencing decisions that are made in the best interests of the people of South Australia.

I want to talk about the way that that decision has been received by members opposite, and I just might encourage them to reflect on the past 18 months and work out where they want to go for the next 18 months. I note that a couple of motions that will be moved in February and March respectively, on health and the Repat, are clear and obvious attempts to target me. I will not get into the substance of those debates (I will leave that to the debates), but I will just say that I welcome those two motions—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey is warned for the second time.

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH: —because it will give me an opportunity to talk about the performance of the Leader of the Opposition when he was shadow health minister. I was shadow health minister for some time, I think a fairly effective one, and I handed over a very thorough brief to the member for Dunstan, who made a complete and utter mess of it during his period as shadow health minister. He offered nothing of substance during his entire tenure.

One of the points I made to him was that the health system was in crisis and some tough decisions would need to be made if the Liberals were elected. Of course, the actions reflected in the forthcoming motions and during the debate about the Repat make it clear that there is no policy courage ,when it comes to health, on the other side of the house.

However, I will make a broader point. If members opposite want to get into a fight with the member for Waite over the next 18 months to two years I say, 'Bring it on,' because—

Mr Whetstone interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey will leave the chamber.

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH: —I will give back as good as I get.

Mr Whetstone: You are irrelevant.

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH: I must say that I find the member for Chaffey's and others' argument that I am irrelevant quite funny; if people are irrelevant you do not need to go around telling people. No-one believes you—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! You are talking to me.

The Hon. M.L.J. HAMILTON-SMITH: I will make the point that if, for the next 2½ years leading up to the next election, you want to have the newspapers and the media full of bad Liberal news stories, keep it up, because I will respond and it will be colourful. I have a lot to say about the member for Dunstan and I have a lot to say about the leadership group opposite. I know the full history and I know about people's performance, or lack thereof, so if you want to keep it up I will not only defend the point, I will be quite colourful and detailed in my explanations. There are a number of marginal seats opposite, and I simply say this: the worst thing that could happen to members opposite at the next election would be to lose yet another one—which, I suspect, will occur—and I believe an ongoing fight with Martin Hamilton-Smith could assist that process rather spectacularly, which you will see in the six to 12 months leading up to the election.

I encourage members opposite to look at the way the Labor Party handled the situation when the former Labor member for Mitchell chose to resign from the Labor Party. I think the tactics and the strategy that the Labor Party used to handle that issue might be instructive for members opposite. I send a very clear message to those opposite that if they want the newspaper and the media full of bad news stories about the Liberal Party by continuing attacks on me, I am happy to oblige. Believe me, not only will I put up a big show, but if people want to throw a rock I will back up the truck and lift the tipper. It really is up to them. I really welcome it, and I cannot tell you how excited I am to address the two forthcoming motions on the Repat.

The decisions the government has made are the right decisions for veterans and the right decisions for our health system, and they required considerable courage. You might recall that members opposite wanted to close Modbury; frankly, we might well be here, were they in government, closing both Modbury and the Repat for the same reasons and facing the same circumstances that the government presently faces.

All I would say to those opposite is that rather than concentrate on personal attacks, think about policy. What I would like to see is intelligent debate on policy issues. The reason I am standing over here is that I want to make a really informed contribution to the future of this state. I have an 11 year old and I want him to have a job in 10 years' time.

Frankly, there are some very important issues that need to be debated. Future submarines and frigates, as I have mentioned, is one; getting more of our businesses to sell their products and services is another; working out ways to accommodate the transformation of the automotive industry is another; and dealing with the downturn in mining, energy, oil and gas is another. Improving our education system and our health system, these are all important debates and, frankly, I would rather hear the opposition talking about that than launching personal attacks. However, if that is what they want that is what they will get.

Time expired.

An honourable member interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

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