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Legislative Council - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2)
2020-07-01 Daily Xml
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Regional Economic Recovery

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:36): I rise today to speak about the importance of regional economic recovery from the devastating impact of the coronavirus pandemic. Regional South Australia has been hit particularly hard by COVID-19 restrictions, as members would be aware. Our regional communities have had a devastating start to 2020, firstly with the drought, then bushfires and now the coronavirus pandemic.

South Australia's regions are a key driver of the state's economy and will be critical to a rapid recovery as COVID-19 restrictions continue to be eased. South Australians have done an incredible job working together to limit the health impacts of coronavirus, and now we need to focus on building a strong economy that creates job opportunities both now and into the future.

The economic resilience of our regions will underpin the future prosperity of South Australia. This is why the Marshall Liberal government recently fast-tracked $15 million of the Regional Growth Fund to provide some much-needed economic stimulus. The Hon. Tim Whetstone, the Minister for Primary Industries and Regional Development, member for Chaffey, saw this as an excellent one-off opportunity for individual regional businesses to access up to $2 million to launch shovel-ready projects, driving new or greater economic activity. This, of course, creates much-needed jobs.

Whilst the Regional Growth Fund usually is not available to individual businesses, the unprecedented nature of the coronavirus pandemic has led the government to open this exceptional funding opportunity to stimulate investments made by individual commercial enterprises. Applications remain open until 12pm on Monday 6 July—so just next week—for grants between $50,000 and up to a substantial $2 million. This will unlock business investment and help kickstart vital economy-growing projects in our regions and right across the state.

It is critically important that businesses that want to be part of a growing economy put submissions into this latest round. Again, I emphasise that our regional centres are critical to the state's economy—that is simply a fact. It is also important to note that this is on the back of another stimulus round, where the government provided an extra $5 million of stimulus through the Regional Growth Fund directly after the COVID-19 pandemic was announced. This ongoing government investment is key to rebuilding confidence in our regions.

It is encouraging to see South Australians getting out and about and supporting our regions, which further boosts the regional private sector and businesses all over the place, helping to lift our regional economy. Our regions have so much to offer, and as regional tourism begins to recover South Australians can continue to experience our great state. There are many ways that the government is encouraging regional recovery. More than 1,000 people a day are visiting the Marshall Liberal government's new jobs website targeting unemployed South Australians to get involved in seasonal work in agriculture, such as fruit picking or grape harvesting.

The new jobs campaign, Seasonal Jobs SA, was recently launched to help connect jobseekers in agricultural work across the state and boost regional economies dealing with the impact of the coronavirus. With South Australia's borders having been closed to protect the state from coronavirus, there has been a reduction in the international and interstate travellers who normally take up seasonal jobs. The coronavirus pandemic has had an impact across many industries, and Seasonal Jobs SA is a vehicle to fill jobs in agriculture to help our farmers get their quality products into the Australian marketplace.

The campaign's tagline is 'If you need jobs we need you', and it encourages South Australians to give these seasonal jobs a go to help address the significant workforce challenges faced by our primary industries sector going forward. To have more than 1,000 people a day visiting the Seasonal Jobs SA website is a great result and, with more jobs available in the coming weeks and months, anyone who has had their employment affected by coronavirus is encouraged to visit the site. There they will find a wide range of jobs available across a range of agricultural sectors.

This year alone around 24,000 workers are needed fill essential agricultural jobs, so we need locals to get involved and get their hands dirty for the sake of our primary industries sector. Whether it be fruit picking, grape harvesting, vine pruning, tree planting or vegetable picking, regional jobseekers can play an important part in putting food on the tables of South Australian families. I am aware of one example where Citrus South Australia has been inundated with applications for jobs, and that has saved the 2020 citrus season. That is an outstanding success.

By subscribing to the Seasonal Jobs SA website prospective workers can match their skills to new jobs as the seasonal work changes. There is a wide range of roles available and they are different for each sector over the year. The website also ensures we are keeping our regional communities safe with a toolkit of information to help employers and employees understand the coronavirus requirements.

I encourage all members of this council and the other place to promote the Seasonal Jobs SA website, and urge rural businesses to apply for Regional Growth Fund assistance. Here in South Australia we are attracting investment into this great state, strengthening regional economies and creating regional jobs.

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