PAYROLL TAX

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (14:52): My question again is to the Minister for Small Business. Does the minister agree with the Premier's comment that raising the payroll tax threshold from $600,000 to $800,000 is simply throwing money at business?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:52): I speak for the government, and can I say this: the policy that you have—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: There are any number of opposition members on two warnings. The member for Unley has taken the warnings. I suggest the others do, as well. The Premier will be heard in silence.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I speak for the government in relation to payroll tax matters, and our position remains clear. The payroll tax cut that we have put into the budget is an intelligently crafted tax relief to those small businesses that deserve our support, not this generalised tax cut that flows through to every business, big or small, without any obligation or targeting of any reciprocal effort on their part. It is, in this environment, fiscally irresponsible. It is driven by ideology and not by any intelligent design of public policy, and it is the sort of thinking that is replete through the brochure, the flyer, the document, that piece of paper that almost wafted to the ground the other day when I dropped it. This is in the insipid public policy-making that we have come to expect from those opposite and is reflected in what they are offering the people of South Australia.