Question Time

Payroll Tax

Mr MARSHALL (Dunstan—Leader of the Opposition) (14:06): My question is to the Treasurer. Will the Treasurer apologise for last week threatening small business in South Australia with an increase in payroll tax?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:06): The opposite is true. The people who should be apologising are the Liberal Party, for blocking tax cuts for small business. In fact, such is our commitment—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Such is our commitment to payroll tax cuts that we brought legislation in. Such is our commitment to payroll tax cuts, we wanted to make it law. But unfortunately, Mr Speaker—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Unfortunately for us, the shadow minister—the shadow treasurer, led by the Leader of the Opposition—blocked those tax cuts. You have to ask yourself: what kind of Liberal votes against tax cuts for small business? What kind of Liberal blocks tax cuts of up to $10,000 for South Australian small businesses? The person who is required to apologise to South Australian small business is the Leader of the Opposition. He owes every single one of those 3,900 small businesses who were being offered tax cuts in law an apology. He's the one who blocked them. He's the one who said no. He's the one who wanted to delay them. He's the one who would rather, of course—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —side with the banks. When you think about the banks, Mr Speaker—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: You can tell by the yelling how frustrated he is about all this, Mr Speaker. You can tell by the high-pitched noise, Mr Speaker, in his voice how upset he is about the way he has behaved. All the conventions of the parliament have been thrown out the window by the Leader of the Opposition, and members opposite have followed him quite happily over that cliff.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The constant interjections and the constant shouting into the parliament show that they have no alternative, whereas the government is getting on with what it is we attempted to do in the budget bill. What we are doing, administratively, is making sure that the small businesses—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: —that the Leader of the Opposition attempted to block can be passed on to those small businesses. I will be writing to all those small businesses telling them that I wished this was a law, but unfortunately the Liberal Party, led by the Leader of the Opposition, blocked them. Shame on the opposition! Shame on the Liberal Party!

The SPEAKER: Before the supplementary, I call to order the members for Unley, Elder, Colton, Fisher, Morialta, Stuart, Adelaide, Mitchell, Schubert and Chaffey, the leader and the deputy leader. I warn the leader, the deputy leader and the members for Elder, Mitchell, Morialta and Schubert, and I warn for the second and the final time the leader, the deputy leader and the members for Morialta, Mitchell and Schubert.