Private Sector Investment

The Hon. S.W. KEY (Ashford) (14:52): My question is directed to the Treasurer. In the context of the Rumsfeld/Rau 'known knowns or known unknowns', can the Treasurer inform the house of any new Australian Bureau of Statistics data on private sector investment in South Australia?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy) (14:53): Sir, you will be pleased to know that South Australia recorded a significant increase in private sector capital expenditure in the September quarter, according to the ABS data published today. Mr Speaker, you will be pleased to know that, in trend terms, the private sector capital investment was $1.6 billion in the quarter—32 per cent higher than in the same quarter last year.

The increase in expenditure in South Australia was the highest in the nation, both when comparing the quarter with the same quarter last year and when comparing the September quarter with the preceding quarter, that is, the June quarter of this year. Clearly, growth in South Australia's private sector capital expenditure far outpaced the national average.

The September quarter, of course, came after the state budget was announced in June, when there was a shameless and dishonest campaign waged by the banks when they claimed that the private sector would stop investing in South Australia. The quarter recorded by the ABS would not have reflected much of the surging investments announced by the private sector companies since the budget, including:

SolarReserve's decision to invest $650 million in a solar thermal plant in Port Augusta;

the SkyCity board's decision to go ahead with a $330 million development just behind us;

OZ Minerals' decision to invest more than $900 million in the Carrapateena copper gold deposit in South Australia; and

BHP's new investment to upgrade their smelter, employing 1,300 contractors and discussing, of course, the potential of a $2.9 billion investment in an upgrade.

These announcements, on top of the last quarter's growth, will underpin momentum in the quarters in years ahead. They are a very encouraging measure of our economy indeed.

Today's ABS data shows an increase in both the measures used by the bureau—that is in 'buildings and structures' and 'equipment, plant and equipment'. It is the fourth highest quarterly expenditure ever recorded in South Australia—ever! I emphasise that the data is from actual private sector investment. The government's infrastructure investment in hospitals, in schools, in roads, in science labs and in sporting infrastructure is on top of all of this.

In collaboration with the business community, the government is helping to create a strong economy, despite the massive external blows inflicted on us by external forces, like the commonwealth government daring General Motors Holden to close and leave, the downturn in commodity prices and the deliberate extinction of the automotive industry. We were planning to try to help this economy grow. The tax cuts that we introduced to this parliament, which members opposite told us were unnecessary and demanded we bring forward, are having dramatic impacts on spending in South Australia.

On 1 July of next year, we will become the only state in the federation to charge no transactional taxes whatsoever on any commercial or business transaction, real or non-real—that is, on plant and equipment and building for the commercial sector. No other state has gone that far. No other state has done this much, and we are seeing the fruits of those tax cuts. Members opposite who derided those tax cuts and said that they were unnecessary and the wrong ones, and backed Business SA's calls for payroll tax cuts instead, have been proved wrong. They have been proved wrong time and time again.

Mr GARDNER: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order, whatever it was going to be.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Yes, quite. The once and future member for Hartley.