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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2022-06-02 Daily Xml
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Skills Shortages

Mr ODENWALDER (Elizabeth) (14:17): My question is to the Minister for Education, Training and Skills. Can the minister advise how the South Australian government are supporting local companies to address skills shortages?

The Hon. B.I. BOYER (Wright—Minister for Education, Training and Skills) (14:17): I thank the member for Elizabeth for this important question, and I thank him for his longstanding advocacy of businesses in the north as well. I was thrilled to have the opportunity just yesterday morning to finally visit and do a tour of the R.M. Williams factory in Salisbury South with the Deputy Premier and the member for Ramsay—who callously took Salisbury South back into her seat from the seat of Wright at the last election—and announce that the Malinauskas Labor government is supporting two new training pathways to address critical skills shortages that companies like R.M. Williams are facing.

We know that R.M. Williams is an iconic South Australian brand. I have no doubt there would be many pairs of boots and belts in this place right now. You may not know that R.M.s actually exports to more than 15 countries around the world, but unfortunately a skills shortage, which they are suffering at the moment, has meant that right now they are unable to even just meet their basic domestic demand. It should go without saying that we must do everything we can to support businesses like this—not just to be able to meet their existing local demand but also to be able to export and grow and expand.

But before I get to how we are addressing that and how the Malinauskas Labor government is going to achieve that, there is a very special story that I would like to tell the chamber here today. It is the story of 21-year-old Chloe Fabian from Mallala, who gets up 5am every day to drive the 45 minutes to the factory where she works on manufacturing R.M. Williams boots with her father and her sister.

Chloe has a very big ambition. Each boot starts as a single piece of leather and it passes through an incredible 80 sets of hands before it is complete. Chloe's ambition is to learn all 80 steps that would make her the first woman to be classed a master craftsman of the iconic R.M. Williams boot. I can tell you, and I am sure the Deputy Premier and the member for Ramsay would agree after joining me for the tour yesterday, and having the opportunity to speak to staff, that it is not an easy process. Making these boots is still a very physical process because it is a traditional and authentic method that is used, but I can tell you that Chloe absolutely loves the work and is really showing the blokes how it is done.

This is obviously an amazing story in its own right. It shows us why it is so important that as a government we do everything we can to offer training pathways for people like Chloe to get the skills that they need to meet their ambitions and also make sure that local employers and manufacturers like R.M. Williams actually have the skilled workforce they need to be able to meet their existing demand and grow and expand. Unfortunately, that support has been lacking.

When R.M. Williams' owner Twiggy Forrest came and visited the factory last year—and people would remember that was not long after he brought R.M. Williams back into Australian hands—he said that we have lost the skills here in Australia necessary to help R.M.s manufacture their goods onshore. I am pleased to say that the Malinauskas government is backing our local manufacturers, and we are backing local jobs.

The Certificate III in Leather Production will allow R.M. Williams to upskill existing employees as well as train new workers through a traineeship pathway. As well as the Certificate III in Leather Production, we are also introducing a new textile and clothing production worker traineeship, which is aligned to the Certificate III in Applied Fashion Design and Technology. I am advised that R.M. Williams will need a staggering 600 to 800 additional workers in the next five years alone. These training pathways will mean that more than 400 of those jobs will stay right here in South Australia so we get to hear lots more fantastic stories just like Chloe's.

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