Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-09-25 Daily Xml

Contents

Employment Figures

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL (14:49): Supplementary.

The PRESIDENT: Supplementary, Mr Parnell.

The Hon. M.C. PARNELL: The minister may need to take this on notice, but is it correct that in South Australia the number of people who claim to be underemployed, when added to the number of people who are unemployed, is about equal to the number of people who claim to be overemployed and, in fact, are working more hours than they would like to be? An additional supplementary: are there any steps that the government can take in addition to the workplace culture measures that the minister referred to to help better allocate work in the South Australian economy?

The Hon. G.E. GAGO (Minister for Employment, Higher Education and Skills, Minister for Science and Information Economy, Minister for the Status of Women, Minister for Business Services and Consumers) (14:49): It's the world really. They are very interesting issues that the honourable members (both of them) have raised here underpinning those sorts of statistics. I have heard of similar statistics that the honourable member raises. I cannot verify that one way or the other here today but I would be very happy to take that on notice and to bring back a response.

The issues are very broad and very complex. If you look at workplaces and work cultures around overemployment, some of those cultures are just as heavily ingrained culturally and into, I guess, attitudes as those that I was referring to earlier around women. Indeed, they are complex issues and issues that leading businesses are working very hard at to try to ensure that those work practices are better balanced and work is better distributed between those who are overworked and those who are underworked.