Time & Perspective Quote by Jay Weatherill

Jay Weatherill ties the states long-term prosperity to the quality of its people rather than the price of its commodities. He points to a structural shift already underway: as routine manufacturing and low-margin services shrink under pressure from automation and global competition, the engines of growth are advanced manufacturing, defense, renewable energy, digital technologies, and biomedicine—sectors that reward expertise and continual learning. For South Australia, this was not an abstract lesson. The end of car making embodied by Holden’s closure forced a pivot from assembly-line jobs to shipbuilding at Osborne, the renewables build-out capped by the Hornsdale battery, and innovation precincts such as Tonsley linking firms with TAFE and university research. The argument is that lasting growth depends on building a dense ecosystem of skills, research, and firms that can commercialize ideas at home and sell them to the world.

The statement carries a policy agenda. Schools must lift foundational literacy, numeracy, and digital fluency; TAFE and apprenticeships need stable funding and modern equipment; universities require incentives to partner with industry on applied research and spin-outs. Migration settings, procurement, and export strategies should align to attract talent and create markets for complex, high-value products. It also implies a social compact: if the path to prosperity runs through technical proficiency, access to training and reskilling cannot be rationed by postcode or past occupation. Mid-career workers displaced by industrial change will need shorter, stackable credentials and paid transitions, or else the productivity gains of new industries will be offset by social and regional dislocation.

Weatherill’s claim is ultimately pragmatic. Natural advantages and cheap labor are no longer reliable growth models for a small, open economy. The comparative advantage a state can control is human capital. By backing skills, R&D, and industry collaboration at scale, a state can turn volatility into resilience and convert technological change from a threat into its next export.