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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2018-06-20 Daily Xml
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Motions

Defence Workforce Plan

Debate resumed.

The Hon. D.G. PISONI (Unley—Minister for Industry and Skills) (12:37): I stand here supporting the motion put before this house by the member for King, making it very clear that we do not support the stunt that has been attempted by the Leader of the Opposition today, which is based entirely on a fallacy. The Leader of the Opposition's amendment tries to claim credit for the work that ministers such as Christopher Pyne have done for South Australia in delivering this tremendous opportunity for careers and jobs and a boom in the South Australian economy that we are seeing with the defence industry in South Australia.

If we look at the claim made by the Leader of the Opposition, he suggests that the advocacy campaign was responsible for the defence projects coming to South Australia. The fact is that was not the case at all. The advocacy program was a diversion from the previous government's lack of progress and their lack of ability to deliver careers, jobs and skills in South Australia. It was an attempt at an illusion that they were actually doing something when they were not. The evidence is in the figures.

What was happening when this so-called advocacy campaign was being run by the previous government using taxpayers' money? During the period March 2014 to March 2018, South Australia recorded the highest trend unemployment rate of all the states for 31 of those 48 months—about two-thirds of the time. This is the tactic of the previous government, looking for blame for their employment outcomes. In that same period, South Australia recorded the highest or the second-highest seasonally adjusted unemployment rate of all the states for 37 of the 48 months, which is about three-quarters of the time.

If we look at the trend unemployment rates, which are the more reliable rates, 80 per cent of that time between March 2014 and March 2018, we saw South Australia with the highest or second-highest unemployment rate in the country by trend. We heard the member for Ramsay telling this house that they were helping women to get into the trades. How on earth was that working for you, member for Ramsay, I ask?

In the last five years from 2012 to 2017, under that government, we saw training fall in apprenticeships and traineeships in South Australia by 22,000. That is a 60 per cent fall in apprenticeships and traineeships in that five-year period. I can well and truly guess that that included women being denied opportunities under the poor management of the previous Labor government.

We saw commencements fall by 16,900 or 66 per cent. That is 66 per cent fewer apprenticeship and traineeship starts in 2017 compared with 2012—another staggering figure. Completions have fallen by 57 per cent. What we have ended up with is a very difficult position for South Australia to take full advantage of the opportunities that have been given to this state by the Turnbull government's decision to have a continuous building program and a defence industry in South Australia.

We have $90 billion locked into the budget for the next 50 years being spent on defence industries. I understand that it makes Australia the 11th largest purchaser of defence products in the world at the moment, an extraordinary achievement for a country of just 25 million people. It shows you how big this project is for South Australia.

The previous government was much more interested in playing politics and setting up a diversion for their failures in delivering opportunities for South Australians to participate in this project. We are focused on making sure South Australians have the skills that they need in order to participate in this massive project in South Australia. It will not just be this project. There will be spin-off industries that will come because of the technology and the skills that are needed in South Australia to deliver these projects.

I was at a manufacturing company down south. They started off as a company 20-odd years ago building outdoor furniture for local government. They then moved into sheet metal work and other work. They have apprentices, and now they are doing defence work. They are building a component that will end up as an anti-improvised device unit that is going to be fitted to armoured vehicles in Iraq. This company has moved into the defence space.

The skills that it has been using for general products for sale interstate and locally are now being used for international sales in the defence industry. This is a strategic foot in the door, and that foot in the door is the hardest thing to do when you are moving into something like the defence industry because about 40 per cent of the cost of manufacturing a defence product is in the paperwork. The paperwork must be compliant in order for the product to be certified.

The member for Ramsay would like to know what skills are needed in order for the defence industry to continue to grow here in South Australia. She does not need to worry, because that work is being done; the federal government is funding—$2.5 million a year—a partnership between Huntington Ingalls and KBR. Huntington Ingalls, for those who do not know, is the largest shipbuilder in the United States of America. They have partnered up with engineering firm KBR to identify where those skills are needed and to match up those skills with the defence industry through the shipbuilding or naval college they are establishing at Osborne.

This is a significant aid to South Australians, through industries such as the industry I described earlier that had those skills that could be used in the defence industry. Of course we cannot forget the work that the Ai Group Defence Council is doing with the federal government, and again I have to congratulate the defence industry minister Christopher Pyne on the work he has done in ensuring that small and medium businesses are being hooked up to the defence work that has come into South Australia because of the Turnbull government decision to bring defence industries here to South Australia.

What the Leader of the Opposition has offered today is more politics, more of what we heard from Labor when they were in government. They have got out the red book, they have dusted off the formula on page 13 or whatever it is, saying, 'How can we cause a diversion from the fact that we are now irrelevant?' They are pulling out their old tricks again, the Little Red Book. South Australians will not stand for it. They voted for a change, and they know we have an agenda for jobs and careers for South Australians, making sure we get the best possible outcome from these contracts that come into our state.

We will deliver. We are putting money on the table—nearly $200 million dollars of state and federal money—to train South Australians in apprenticeships and traineeships; real jobs, not mickey mouse training programs but real jobs, to deliver real careers for South Australians.

Ms LUETHEN (King) (12:48): I would like to thank the Minister for Industry and Skills, the member for Waite and the member for Morphett for their comments and for supporting skills and plans for jobs in South Australia in the defence and shipbuilding industries. The Marshall Liberal state government is working hard every single day to deliver real change in South Australia. Our change will create more jobs, lower costs for families and businesses, and better government services. Every day, we continue to create a strong foundation and will keep building on what we have started, delivering for every individual, for every family and every business in South Australia. Thank you for your support on this side of the house.

Amendment negatived; motion carried.

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