Edwardstown Regional Business Association

Ms DIGANCE (Elder) (14:28): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer inform the house of his recent visit and presentation to the Edwardstown Regional Business Association?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:29): I met a fine woman today, the mother of the minister for industry and trade—a fine woman. I thank the member for her question. Today, I attended the Edwardstown Regional Business Association breakfast. The member for Elder was a fine host, as were the Small Business Commissioner and, of course, Mr Ian Nightingale, our Industry Participation Advocate. Tomorrow, I will be attending a Lonsdale business breakfast with the member for Reynell.

Forums like today are a fantastic opportunity to meet with small to medium-size enterprises to discuss the opportunities the budget presents to them. It also gives me an opportunity to talk to businesses firsthand and understand the pressures that they are facing. My discussions with businesses at forums like today, combined with recent economic reports, give me rise to some cautious optimism in South Australia. We all know South Australia is facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the global decline in mineral commodity prices, gaps in naval shipbuilding, and the closure of the Australian car manufacturing industry; however, despite these challenges, green shoots are starting to appear.

Retail figures announced today show that in June 2016 retail turnover in the current prices rose by 0.3 per cent in South Australia in trend terms compared to 0.2 per cent nationally. During the June quarter 2016, retail turnover rose by 0.9 per cent in South Australia in trend terms compared to 0.4 per cent nationally. The latest Sensis Business Index showed that South Australia was the biggest mover in this quarter with small to medium business confidence up 24 points. This is on the back of positive reports from the ANZ Property Council, the ANZ Stateometer, the SA Centre for Economic Studies, and CommSec's State of the States report.

As I have previously informed the house, the ANZ Property Council observed a strong positive move in sentiment, business confidence and conditions in South Australia. The report outlined that there was a clear correlation between this improvement and outlook in South Australia and the aggressive approach of our government in lowering property taxes. These are tax cuts which the Leader of the Opposition stated would not create a single job, but then he called on us to bring them forward.

Businesses like those attending the Edwardstown Regional Business Association are aware of our nation-leading tax reforms. They are supportive of those reforms. They are the most comprehensive in our state's history, which sees us abolishing business stamp duties, returning nearly $670 million to businesses and families, making South Australia the most attractive state to do business. Our tax reforms come on top of our WorkCover reforms, which have delivered almost $180 million per annum worth of savings to businesses, and combined have assisted in creating 6,900 additional jobs in the past 12 months to June 2016.

That is why KPMG's Competitive Alternatives report has ranked Adelaide as the most competitive city surveyed within Australia, ahead of Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane. There is much more work to be done, particularly as the closure of Holden approaches, but recent economic reports show that we should remain cautiously optimistic as we transition away from a traditional manufacturing economy to an economy based on advanced manufacturing and other high value adding industries.

Last year's budget cut taxes. This year's budget sees businesses invest and people wanting to grow the economy and hire new people, with rebates of up to $10,000 and $4,000 per job created for businesses in South Australia. I look forward to the long chain of defence projects recently announced by the commonwealth, and most importantly I look forward to tomorrow's BankSA survey released just after the state budget.