''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.