BUSINESS AND CONSUMER CONFIDENCE

Ms PORTOLESI (Hartley) (14:27): Will the Treasurer advise the house of the findings of reports released today on consumer and business confidence?

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY (Port Adelaide—Deputy Premier, Treasurer, Minister for Industry and Trade, Minister for Federal/State Relations) (14:27): Listen to the ABC? Yes, well, I was going to refer to them in my answer, because only the ABC and the Liberal parties—and quite often you can never tell the two apart—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: With one little negative!

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I did hear that on the ABC this morning, and no doubt the resident cynics of the morning would have had a crack at it. What I did want to bring to the attention of the house is that the BankSA State Monitor report and the Sensis Business Index were released—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Terrible!

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Only the ABC could swallow Martin Hamilton-Smith's line, as it always does. Hopefully, there will be some more objective media around which will realise—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: —that the Leader of the Opposition is interested only (like early morning radio on the ABC) in talking down South Australia and the economy. Stay, David, stay. The BankSA Monitor has South Australia's consumer confidence at 119.7 index points compared with a neutral reading of 100 points. Although this is slightly down from the August 2007 result—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: —BankSA Managing Director, Mr Rob Chapman—

Mr Hamilton-Smith interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition will come to order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: It's all right, mate; Matt and Dave will give you a chance tomorrow morning! Mr Chapman said that it was a solid result—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Sir, can I have some protection?

The SPEAKER: The members on my left will come to order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Thank you, sir. Mr Rob Chapman said that it was a solid result, considering the closure of Mitsubishi, interest rate rises in February, August and November, and, of course, we had a very volatile share market as well. He said, 'These results suggest that consumers are not panicking about changing conditions and remain optimistic about the state's future.'

The BankSA State Monitor report also includes a 10-year report on consumer and business confidence, and this is the very interesting piece to read in the report. The report notes that the most marked increase in consumer confidence over the last 10 years has been from 2002 to 20004, when confidence jumped by 10 basis points and has held up around that level ever since. But it gets better! On radio this morning, Mr Chapman said:

We're about 10 basis points higher, in terms of our confidence in both consumer and business, than what we were five years ago and also what we were 10 years ago...There's a lot of hope—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: There is a lot more to go, sir. He said:

There's a lot of hope, there's a lot of optimism around the future for this state and I think that sentiment is quite soundly based.

Mr Chapman went on to say:

You know, we assess the mood and, you know, the levels of consumer and business confidence so that gives us an indicator as to the health of the economy and certainly the future state of the economy...Consumers and business owners do remain quite resilient and quite optimistic for their own and the state's future.

The report was again quoted in The Advertiser this morning. It stated:

The spike in confidence coincided with the end of a drought, defence and mining investment, a housing boom, a new state government and a stable Australian economy.

When Mr Chapman gives his and his bank's objective assessment of the performance of this state, not like the bias you hear on ABC Radio in the morning, the daily rant against the government by Bevan and Abraham, ably supported by state Liberals, you start to realise—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: —that our economy is very, very good. But let us hear what else Mr Chapman said. The article also quoted Mr Chapman as saying that the confidence surveys gave us an accurate picture of the economy. It went on to say that, from 2003, the great prospects for South Australia, particularly in mining, had been communicated 'very well'. Mr Chapman said, 'There have been some doubters'—we can guess where they have come from—'people saying, "Ah, there's spin on all of this". But this is real'—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: I will start this again. Can I at least be heard in silence? Mr Chapman said:

But this is real, this is what's going on to sustain the state's future for the next 50 years. Real jobs are being created, real jobs with big salaries.

I can go on to quote the Sensis Business Index, which also gives a similar assessment of the performance of our state economy. What I want to end by saying is this: our economy is extremely well positioned at present. It is not without external threat, as it relates to the world economy—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: —and interest rates as a result. However, since this government came to office we have given a significant boost to economic confidence and we have given a significant boost to economic performance in this state.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Whilst there will always be the cynics and the critics, whilst there will always be the whingeing and the whining of members opposite—

Mr Hamilton-Smith interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: —and we will get another three hours of that on ABC Radio tomorrow morning—notwithstanding Abraham and Bevan and the Liberal opposition, we will continue to send the message that this is a great state in which to do business, a state open for business and a state full of business confidence.