Skip to main content
Home
  • The Legislative Assembly meets on 16/04/2024 (01:00 PM)
    Assembly sit 16/04/2024
  • The Legislative Council meets on 16/04/2024 (01:00 PM)
    Council sit 16/04/2024
  • The Public Administration meets on 08/04/2024 (10:00 AM)
    Committee meet 08/04/2024

Parliamentary Questions


Question Without Notice No. 91 asked in the Legislative Council on 20 February 2019 by Hon Diane Evers

Parliament: 40 Session: 1

''OUR PRIORITIES: SHARING PROSPERITY'' — REGIONAL JOBS

91. Hon DIANE EVERS to the Leader of the House representing the Premier:

I refer to the Premier's media release today on the Our Priorities vision.

(1) How was the target of 30 000 additional jobs to be created in regional areas determined?

(2) How many of these additional regional jobs is it anticipated will be in the South West Region?

(3) How many of these additional regional jobs will be government positions or contracts?

(4) I refer to the Our Priorities website and the comment that the government will deliver new infrastructure; is this additional to new infrastructure in the existing budget?

(5) If yes to (4), what is the additional infrastructure, where will it be built and how much is it anticipated it will cost?

Hon SUE ELLERY replied:

I thank the honourable member for some notice of the question.

(1) An ambitious target of 30 000 new jobs across regional Western Australia was determined by the Premier working with ministers and their agencies. As part of the overall commitment to 150 000 new jobs in Western Australia, the government wants to ensure that regional Western Australia shares in the prosperity that results from economic growth. Government agencies provided input and advice to shape measurable indicators that would be useful to demonstrate meaningful change against these priorities. These are the priorities that matter most to us as a community. We also know that for whole-of-government targets to be a success, the targets should be manageable in number, and progress should be able to be measured in a transparent way.

(2)–(3) This is not known at this stage. The aim is to give Western Australians employment opportunities in a broad range of industries, including agriculture, manufacturing, construction, tourism, defence, education and health services, and new and emerging technical and scientific industries. To support these industries, we need a skilled and energised workforce to deliver growth in regional and metropolitan Western Australia. More regional jobs in a diversified economy means economic growth is distributed more fairly across the community. These first few months of the program will build detail and reporting time lines to ensure that progress is accurately measured and regularly reported to the community through the Our Priorities website.

(4) The commitment to deliver new infrastructure refers to commitments already made in the 2018–19 budget. The Our Priorities program is about working differently to achieve positive outcomes. It is about identifying gaps and looking at how we can improve on what we are already doing by sharing knowledge, practice and data to change delivery on the ground. A new standalone unit will be established within the Department of the Premier and Cabinet to help guide the implementation of the priorities program.

(5) Not applicable.