Goods and Services Tax

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:35): My supplementary to the Premier is: what will be the jobs impact in South Australia of an increase of 50 per cent to the GST rate?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (14:35): It depends whether the commonwealth decides to press ahead with such an idea. It's a commonwealth tax and our proposition is, if they indeed want to pursue their agenda of changing the tax mix then presumably they will do some modelling based on the movement between indirect and direct taxes. People are utterly sick of this idea of trying to take out little elements of the tax reform debate and run scare campaigns. They are sick of it. They are sick of that sort of approach.

We are trying to put a sensible, constructive idea to break a deadlock in the national debate, for which we are getting credit (credit from some of your federal colleagues). Instead, we come here and we get the petty point scoring that you would expect from a low rent opposition that has no ideas about the future. Why is there a serious debate occurring on a national basis and you come into this place and you get these penny-pinching questions, trying to reduce the debate down to quick, cheap grabs?

Mr Marshall interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: No, just quick, cheap grabs; cheap ideas. If your federal counterparts think there is a massive dividend, if your federal counterparts think there is, in fact, a massive efficiency dividend in shifting from direct to indirect taxation, which is at the heart of this, because there is another simple solution, we could just increase rates of direct taxation, that's another way of solving this dilemma, but they have ruled that out—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: We didn't cut $80 billion out of state and territory budgets. Your mates saw that those opposite—

The SPEAKER: I don't have—

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: No, you don't have mates over there, sorry.

The SPEAKER: I don't have federal counterparts.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Those opposite and their friends in the national parliament took $80 billion out of our collective state and territory budgets. We were opposed to that. There were shrieks of silence when those opposite heard these things, they crawled away into a corner and pretended it did not happen. We were the only ones who were actually on this picket line raising our voice. Now everyone is there and we are all talking, collectively across the nation, about the difficulties of these cuts. So, don't agitate your issues with me, go and speak to your—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Yes, I call the Premier to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Sorry. Those opposite should speak to their colleagues in the national parliament. They shouldn't agitate their grievance with me, Mr Speaker, they should agitate their grievance with the people they seem to have a difficulty with; that is, people who are speaking lovingly about an increase in the GST in the federal Liberal Party at a national level.

The SPEAKER: I call to order the members for Unley, Stuart and Goyder and I warn for the first time the leader and the member for Chaffey. Supplementary, leader.