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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2015-12-01 Daily Xml
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Employment, Higher Education and Skills Minister

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (14:36): My question is directed to the Leader of the Government. Given the background briefings being given by the Premier's media advisers about the minister's future prospects, what one specific new initiative to create jobs next year in her portfolio areas would the minister argue to the Premier and South Australians justifies keeping her in the ministry?

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) (14:36): I thank the member for his appalling, churlish question. It is indicative that his long career in politics has been reduced to this, to trying to hurl personal abuse at public servants who cannot protect themselves in this place. You always know when you have the Hon. Rob Lucas on the run, because what he resorts to is a personal attack and personal abuse.

What the Hon. Rob Lucas has trouble dealing with is the fact of his own failed career, as a former failed treasurer. He comes into this place and he is obviously threatened by the incredible work that this government has done, the incredible success of the Rann Weatherill government and the longevity of this government. That is a threat to him, and so he comes in and attempts to hurl abuse at this.

I am incredibly proud of my track record amongst a wide number of portfolios over 10 years—incredibly proud—and I continue to work hard in any capacity that this government wishes me to do. I have given that commitment and I am prepared, as I said, to work in any capacity whatsoever for the future success of this government.

In terms of some of the really important projects that I have had the great pleasure and privilege to be able to contribute to are things like the Riverland Sustainable Futures Fund, which I was able to scope, manage and run. It was almost to fruition, and resulted in 235 jobs.

The Hon. R.I. Lucas interjecting:

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: He asked questions about jobs that I am creating, so he squirms now because he just does not like to hear the facts: 235 jobs. He could never measure up; he never created anything constructive in his space, closing schools and selling off our public assets.

So, there was $4 million in government commitment to the Upper Spencer Gulf Enterprise Zone Fund. Around 116 FTE positions were created. I have talked in this place before about my establishing SinoSA, which is part of an internationalisation strategy for Bioinnovation SA to assist South Australian businesses to export to China, and particularly assist our smaller, high-tech businesses to get a foothold. I have talked about that many times in this place, but I am happy to raise it again.

There are currently nine companies that have been assisted, and that was a platform that I helped establish and initiate. I certainly have strong plans to continue to support that platform and to continue to assist in driving further small, high-tech companies to participate in that platform and to grow jobs from that. I certainly have intentions to do that into the future.

For instance, Micromet is one of the companies that is part of the platform. It's a wastewater treatment company that uses a particular technology to clean. It has been assisted by SinoSA to negotiate an MOU with a Chinese corporation. They anticipate that this has got the potential to lead to thousands of those filtration units being developed here in South Australia for use in China, and they have indicated that that increased production, they believe, in the reasonably short to medium term, will result in an increase of 75 full-time equivalents.

There is Ellex Medical, Ziltek, Jackson Care and others. As I said, I will be working very hard to increase the number of these small South Australian high-tech businesses that reach into these markets, and to grow industries here in South Australia and grow jobs.

The Gather Great Ocean Group, who have invested considerable funding here in South Australia, harvest kelp. At the moment, they make a liquid fertiliser, but they have plans to expand that. They have invested research money in conjunction with Flinders Medical Centre, and they have also invested in research back in China to help create markets for the use of kelp in high-value products amongst pharmaceuticals and cosmetics.

Again, I look forward to continuing to be able to work with companies like this to grow, to work with our universities to participate in research that they need to grow and develop new industries to be located here in South Australia, and to grow future jobs—I certainly look forward to that. I had great pleasure in establishing the artesian cheese making academy, and I noticed—

The Hon. D.W. Ridgway: Artisan, not artesian.

The Hon. G.E. GAGO: Artisan, I beg your pardon. I believe, from the paper on the weekend, that Kris Lloyd, who assisted me in setting up that cheese academy, has won a particular position in an international forum to judge cheese, so these things have helped elevate these small, artisan industries into larger, more substantial industries that have been able to expand. As I said, as they expand, they are able to put on more people and grow jobs. That's just a small example that I saw in the paper this weekend that has clearly benefited from one of the initiatives that I have instigated.

I have talked in this place many times before about my creating WorkReady—an incredibly important training policy that refocused efforts and resources on improving the education and training outcomes with direct employment opportunities. For 2015-16 I announced about 134 employment and training projects, supporting about 8,200 participants and potentially with over 4,000 job outcomes.

Again, I very much look forward to increasingly improving connections with training and employment outcomes in real jobs—not just a row of Cert.2s sitting on the wall but real outcomes that I have been able to achieve. I look forward to continuing to grow those opportunities. One of the other tasks I have set for the department is to improve our completion rates, so we are working very hard to use the levers to ensure that our RTOs are focusing very hard on improving those completion rates.

The Internet of Things Hub has just been opened in conjunction with the Adelaide City Council and Cisco, a tripartite arrangement. I believe we are the first Australian capital city to have opened such a hub. We have a unique relationship with Cisco. We have become one of its lighthouse partners, the only city in Australia to have been awarded that recognition.

Some of the work I have been able to do enabled that to happen. One of the areas that I am particularly interested in growing is particularly early start-ups around that Internet of Things space, and using information technology to create innovative solutions, to drive industry and drive jobs. They are just a couple of areas on which I have focused my attention in the past and areas on which I wish to focus my attention in future.

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