Goods and Services Tax

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (15:13): My question is to the Treasurer. Has the Treasurer had any discussions with Labor leader Bill Shorten about how Gonski will—

Members interjecting:

Mr MARSHALL: Has the Treasurer had any discussions with Labor leader Bill Shorten about how Gonski will be funded in South Australia without increasing the GST to 15 per cent?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier) (15:14): I am responsible for conducting the discussions about the plan of this government with all the relevant national figures, including my interstate colleagues, the national leader of the Labor Party, and indeed the Prime Minister of the country and the federal Treasurer, supplemented and, of course, assisted by the Treasurer on occasions.

Can I say this: on each of these occasions, when we have advanced ideas, we have sent advance copies of the speeches laying out these ideas in detail to every single one of those groups, so nobody has been taken by surprise. The fact that these are complex issues that require quite a considerable discussion and articulation—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: It's not a slogan.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: They are not slogans. It is the easiest thing in the world to take one element of them and misrepresent it and take it out of context, which has been happening routinely in this debate. The very thing that sickens people most about politics is that we cannot speak honestly and openly to people about complex issues and lay out sophisticated plans to respond to them, and if those opposite actually searched their own conscience and actually asked themselves what they would do faced with these circumstances, they would be advancing similar ideas—and they know it.

They know it, but for political reasons they won't permit themselves to say it out loud. We have been prepared to say things out loud which are uncomfortable, which create controversy and, indeed, some measure of conflict in our party, but we do it in the state's interest, we do it in the national interest, and we do it because I am standing up for South Australia.

The SPEAKER: The member for Davenport is called to order, as is the member for Finniss. The member for Morphett is called to order and warned a first and second time, and the member for Adelaide is called to order and warned a first time. Leader.