Adjournment Debate

SOUTH AUSTRALIAN EXPORTS

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood) (16:59): Yesterday, the Premier came into question time and had a government backbencher ask him a Dorothy Dixer about the state's export performance. The good news Premier—who, let me tell you, has not had a lot of good news lately, not much at all—seized upon some narrow data to in some way infer to the parliament—

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: Imply! Imply!

Mr MARSHALL: —that our export performance here in South Australia was doing well.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: Not infer.

Mr MARSHALL: He presented South Australia's February export figures and of course these are naturally up. As per usual, you do not need to scratch too far below the surface with this Premier, though—

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: That's another thing that Hansard will have to change of yours.

Mr MARSHALL: —to understand that the detail makes a mockery of the Premier's—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Member for Hammond, did you wish to make a point of order?

Mr PEDERICK: Yes, Madam Deputy Speaker, I do make a point of order. I think the member deserves to be heard in silence.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: It is not a courtesy that he extends to anyone else.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: That is an interesting point that the member for Croydon makes there. It is known that the member for Norwood is 'articulate'. However, I am sure that the member for Croydon will now listen in deep and committed silence to the member for Norwood.

Mr MARSHALL: Thank you, Madam Deputy Speaker. The February export data was almost entirely due, of course, to the bumper grain harvest in South Australia. It had nothing to do with this Premier and nothing to do with this government. In fact, the government has an appalling track record of supporting our farmers—removing the diesel rebate, attacking country hospitals, cutting funding for small regional schools, removing crucial funding for PIRSA and, of course, ripping the heart out of Rural Solutions SA.

Exports under this government have been woeful. When it came to power in 2002, exports out of this state were $9.1 billion. In the almost 10 years since this time, they have risen to $9.6 billion. It is hardly a massive increase, and when you take into account CPI increases, of course, this is a relative massive decrease under the stewardship of this government.

Of course, the Premier always talks to us about this quantum, but when we actually look at it in terms of our percentage of exports from this country, the situation is even more appalling. In 2002, South Australia held 7.52 per cent of the national exports. That is an important figure to remember: 7.52 per cent of the national exports.

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: 7.52.

Mr MARSHALL: Correct. Today, what is it?

The Hon. M.J. Atkinson: I don't know.

Mr MARSHALL: You wouldn't have a clue. That's right: you don't even understand the basics. It is 4.2 per cent. South Australia now has only 4.2 per cent of the national exports. This is an absolutely disgraceful situation, with only 3 per cent of our firms here in South Australia exporting. This is substantially lower than the national average of 14 per cent. In fact, we are absolutely bottom of the class, with the second to bottom being Tasmania which has more than double our percentage of firms that export out of the country.

The government has set a target for South Australia's export income to increase to $25 billion by 2014 but, as we all know, it will never, ever achieve this target. The Premier and his government should hang their heads in shame with regard to the export performance over their stewardship of the state. When confronted with these statistics, we hear the same old lame excuses from this government with no solutions.

The government wants us to believe that SA is the only state in Australia with an appreciating currency, but I tell you that we have exactly the same currency here in South Australia as they have in New South Wales, Western Australia and even Victoria. That is really not an excuse for South Australia's relative performance at the bottom of the class. The simple fact is that this government, far from assisting exporters, has been a massive barrier to growth since coming to office, and let me tell you why: we are the highest taxed state in Australia; it has closed the business centre; it has removed all funding to the business enterprise centres; it has removed funding for the Council for International Trade and Commerce; it has removed payroll tax incentives for exporting firms; it has closed many overseas offices; and it has scaled back the Department of Trade and Economic Development to a shadow of its former self.

Yesterday, the Premier in this house proudly boasted about this state's performance in terms of attracting international students to this state. I put it to you, that with the quantum of spin, the quantum of press releases coming out of the Premier's office on the issue of international students coming to South Australia, one would think that maybe we had 10 per cent of all international students coming to South Australia, or maybe 15 or 20 per cent.

This state has 5.4 per cent of the international students coming to Australia. So, far from this being a great saviour for South Australia, far from this Premier having a win in this area, we are at the bottom of the class; we do not even perform at our rightful level in terms of our pro rata output for this state. Far from punching above our weight, we are the dunce of the class. This Premier is too concerned with spin, media releases and misleading the people of South Australia. It's time for him to go.