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Legislative Council - Fifty-Third Parliament, Second Session (53-2)
2017-04-11 Daily Xml
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Boeing

The Hon. S.G. WADE (14:30): I seek leave to make a brief explanation before asking the Minister for Employment a question in relation to Boeing.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.G. WADE: Last week, the Premier announced that 250 technical and advanced research positions in a new Boeing hub will be established, with support from the state government, through Investment Attraction South Australia and Defence SA. My questions to the minister are:

1. How much taxpayer money is being spent to secure the agreement with Boeing?

2. What support is Defence SA providing to Boeing?

3. How much of the Investment Attraction Fund has been used?

4. Is the agreement with Boeing different to that with other companies which were successful in securing funding through the Investment Attraction Fund?

5. Will all of the jobs created be secured from the South Australian workforce?

6. Can the minister advise the extent to which some of the jobs are being relocated from Queensland?

The Hon. K.J. MAHER (Minister for Employment, Minister for Aboriginal Affairs and Reconciliation, Minister for Manufacturing and Innovation, Minister for Automotive Transformation, Minister for Science and Information Economy) (14:31): I thank the honourable member for his array of questions. Again, this is one where I am happy to provide some information, and particularly, as the honourable member correctly pointed out, concerning the Investment Attraction Agency, which rests with my very good friend and that great advocate for South Australian business, the Independent Liberal member for Waite, minister Hamilton-Smith, who is a good egg and a great advocate for this state.

He is doing fantastic work for South Australia, attracting business here and attracting jobs for South Australia. He has a real passion for this state and he is doing a fantastic job. I welcome the opportunity to be able to reinforce the good work that he is doing in attracting business to this state—the great work that he is doing. As the Hon. Stephen Wade pointed out, there will be 250 new jobs. I am glad the honourable member is applauding the work that the Independent Liberal, the member for Waite, is doing. In terms of the details on the amount of money, I think it has been made very clear over the last couple of weeks that, no, we won't disclose that.

These are commercial-in-confidence arrangements. States bid against each other to attract these sorts of things. I know the Hon. Stephen Wade doesn't understand business very well at all, but under his line of questioning, I think he would have us reveal exactly how much we used to attract other companies, which would put us in a terrible position in terms of being able to do this in the future against other states. It might be that when the Hon. Stephen Wade is announcing another Liberal policy they will disclose every bit of money and the exact terms and details upon which they would seek to attract business here.

He can get up and say that is not their policy, but if he refuses to do that we can only assume that this is another one of those policies that they have offered here and now. I applaud the Independent Liberal member for Waite, minister Hamilton-Smith, for the work that he is doing in this state. It is, firstly, his ministerial responsibility, his portfolio area, so I won't go into great detail on those, as I tried to explain earlier but which fell on deaf ears. Secondly, these are commercial-in-confidence agreements that we wouldn't disclose and put ourselves at a competitive disadvantage. That would be crazy to do that, no matter what the Hon. Stephen Wade would have us do.

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