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

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:24): My question is to the Premier. Has the Premier instructed any of his ministers or department officials to do anything to arrange any assistance to the affected Telstra workers in South Australia?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:25): I have had a meeting with the Treasurer. We have discussed this issue. As I have already outlined to the house, we sought a meeting. We have received a meeting, a telephone meeting, with a senior representative from Telstra. We have sought additional information. As that information is received, we will assess the options.

We have taken swift action on this issue. I just note that this is an issue that has been floating around for a long period of time. In fact, we heard about these job losses that were going to be coming last year. When we arrived in government on 17 March, there were no detailed plans organised for any occurrence that may occur. As I said, this has been an issue where Telstra has been talking about changes in their workforce for some time. We were surprised when we came to government that work had not been done. We haven't missed a beat.

Mr Malinauskas: So have you done anything about it then?

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: What I'm saying is that when we came to government, there wasn't anything done by your lot when you were in government—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Members on my left will cease interjecting. The leader is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —even though you had known about it for a long period of time.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Very surprised.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Minister for Police is called to order. Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: That is why every single day since we have been in government we have been doing everything we can to grow the economy and diversify the economy. Some of the things which were just left lying around, not addressed, issues like the falling number of people who are engaged in apprenticeships and traineeships, have been addressed by the new government.

I would like to congratulate the new Minister for Industry and Skills. He is focused on creating more jobs in South Australia. That is exactly and precisely what he is doing. He now leads an agency with a dedicated chief executive. Under the previous regime, that same chief executive reported to six separate ministers. He was getting his riding instructions from six separate ministers, and now of course he gets his excellent instructions from the Minister for Industry and Skills, the member for Unley, who by the way is doing an excellent job.

Every single day that we have been in government, we have been focused on growing the size of our economy. Today, as I was mentioning earlier, I was fortunate enough to visit Kilic Engineering. This was a company that was affected by the downturn in the automotive sector and the ultimate demise of Holden, because many of our engineering firms in South Australia did benefit from the broader focus of South Australia on the automotive sector, but that focus is no longer there. It is certainly not in its prior volume or size.

But these companies are adapting. One of the key things that Jason Kilic, the managing director of Kilic Engineering, said is that anything that a government can do to lower costs or reduce regulation or help to find people with the appropriate technical skills will help him to employ more people in the future. I was absolutely delighted to be there today to talk about our plans to reduce payroll tax; the implementation of the reduction in the emergency services levy, which those opposite would know and I'm sure they are applauding, which we will be reducing as of 1 July this year; and the massive $187 million investment in new skills in South Australia.

That is what we are doing. We haven't missed a beat since we were elected. We want to grow our economy, we want to create jobs and we want to keep young people in South Australia.

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