Question Time

TAXES AND CHARGES

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (14:18): As a supplementary, given that the Premier used his time allocated to the last question to justify why we are the highest-taxed state in Australia, is he satisfied that that should remain the case going forward?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:19): I said nothing of the sort. Indeed, if one goes to the budget papers—in fact, on page 53 of the budget papers—in the per capita taxation by jurisdiction, you can see that South Australia ranks sixth amongst all of the states in terms of per capita taxation effort. It is quite opposite to the point that is being made by the Leader of the Opposition; in fact, the budget papers bear out a different proposition. We have chosen to make a very substantial relief in relation to our payroll tax; in fact, I think it is up to about $200 million. We are using the taxation rates that we had when we came into government, namely your taxation rates for payroll tax. We have given $200 million of taxation relief to the South Australian businesses of this state.

In addition to that, because of the particular circumstances of the South Australian economy now, we provided an additional payroll tax relief targeted at small business—temporary, limited in duration—because we wanted to provide that additional impetus at a time when the small business community were crying out for that support. We did not do it in a mindless way. We added to it a series of other measures, which, together with that payroll tax relief, would allow businesses to change, to grow, to do new things in new ways, which are at the heart of the transformation for the South Australian economy.

This is not just simply a matter of throwing money at businesses—large, small or enormous—which is what those opposite have chosen to do. They just simply have a cut across the board, which is poorly targeted, goes on for an extended period and, indeed, on my advice it exceeds well over $100 million of payroll tax relief over the forward estimates. There is not a word about how that would be paid for except to send it to some unelected body which nobody yet knows the composition of, and they will somehow get back to us after the next election telling us which services they will cut—utterly undemocratic, utterly unacceptable.

Members interjecting:

Mr MARSHALL: Supplementary.

The SPEAKER: Leader, please be seated. Again, the Premier again has no responsibility for the policies of the opposition, and I ask him to circumscribe his answers on that point. I call the member for Unley to order for interjecting, and I warn the member for Heysen for the first time; she has barely paused for breath during the Premier's answers. Leader.