SA Department of State Development to lose $30.5 million in funding
SOUTH Australia’s Department of State Development, which is charged with driving economic growth and creating new jobs, will be slashed by $30.5 million over the next four years.
- SA jobless rate rises to 7.3pc
- Boeing to create 250 jobs in Adelaide
- Tesla and Boeing seek investment opportunities in SA
SOUTH Australia’s Department of State Development, which is charged with driving economic growth and creating new jobs, will be slashed by $30.5 million over the next four years.
Officials from the department today fronted State Parliament’s Budget and Finance Committee, in which they also faced a grilling on outcomes from the new investment attraction agency.
Department chief executive Mark Duffy confirmed the cuts, which start with $9.3 million in savings to be found next year and total $30.5 million by the middle of 2021. According to State Budget documents, the department will spend $635 million in the coming year.
The committee also heard that the investment attraction agency, which uses taxpayer money to lure companies including Boeing to create jobs in SA, runs out of funding in 2019. However, it is signing up staff on contracts which would keep them employed beyond that date.
The department’s website states that its core mission is helping “industry, business and communities identify and capitalise upon opportunities for job creation and economic growth”.
SA’s unemployment rate last week jumped to 7.3 per cent, the worst in the country.
Figures compiled by Deloitte Access Economics also found SA has had the slowest economic growth on mainland Australia over the past 25 years, and is the oldest by average age.
Opposition employment spokesman Corey Wingard said it was alarming that public servants were being employed for extended periods in an investment agency without long-term funding.
He said cuts to the state’s lead economic department would hinder hopes of adding new jobs.
“This Government has lost its way,” Mr Wingard said. “We know the unemployment crisis we have. “To be cutting these funds out of these programs and not delivering jobs leaves South Australians wondering where they are going to be coming from.”
Challenged on what the Liberals would do differently if they win power in March, Mr Wingard said the Liberals had promised tax cuts and would roll out a broad plan in coming months.
“We’ve put out a lot of policies that we think will create jobs for South Australians and we’re working every day on delivering a jobs policy,” he said. “We know it is a key thing. We need programs and policies that create jobs, and will be delivering it in the fullness of time.”