State Debt

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (14:28): Is the Premier aware that this level of debt is higher than when Rob Lucas privatised ETSA?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:28): It's great to get the opportunity to talk for another four minutes about the state budget. It's a very important budget to talk about. One thing that we are extraordinarily proud of—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is on two warnings.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —in our budget is our expenditure on productive infrastructure in South Australia. As the Minister for Transport, Infrastructure and Planning outlined to the house only a few moments earlier, there has been a huge amount of work done to repair the relationship with Canberra so that we can—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —present in this budget that has just been handed down the most comprehensive upgrade of our productive infrastructure in this state's history. We are very proud of that—very, very—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —very proud of that. It is interesting. I listened to—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader will not interject.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —the comments from the Leader of the Opposition during his budget in reply speech earlier. If you chunked it up, it sort of made sense. If you listened to it continuously, it was literally all over the place. It was very difficult actually to follow. One minute, he said we should be increasing our recurrent expenditure each and every year. He was fighting against efficiencies and cost savings that we have put in. He was fighting against it. He wanted bigger deficits. Okay, alright, that's his point and that is a legitimate—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —opportunity or option for a government to take. In government, you have these levers that you can pull. One of them could be that we want to run big, big deficit budgets because we want to put more money into the economy. If that's what they want to do, they can do it. We don't want to do that. They ran—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —seven deficit budgets out of the last 10 years—seven out of the last 10 years. The three where they did manage to cobble together a surplus were only from flogging off assets here in South Australia, and there are no more to flog off, by the way, before they ask that next question. They want to run up the big deficits—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Get a briefing.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Now the Leader of the Opposition is suggesting that we are selling the prisons. Who is going to buy this prison?

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I know that according to the Leader of the Opposition there was no central, uplifting theme.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: Point of order. The Premier will be seated.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The question was whether the Premier realised that the net debt was higher now that it was—

The SPEAKER: Yes, about debt level compared to when Rob Lucas was the treasurer.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The question is about—

The SPEAKER: Premier, please come back to the debt.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —debt, sir. Debt, of course, can be increased a couple of ways. Those opposite have advocated this morning in the speech from the Leader of the Opposition to this house that they just want to run big deficit budgets. They don't want to look at—

Mr Malinauskas: You didn't listen at all.

The SPEAKER: The leader will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Wait on. He said that he didn't like any of the efficiencies that we have put in place, but somehow, if we remove those efficiencies—I don't know—we wouldn't have increased expenditure. There's a unicorn over there! You live in la-la land.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order.

The SPEAKER: There is another point of order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: You live in la-la land.

The SPEAKER: Point of order. I think the Premier has finished his answer? I think the Premier has finished his answer. The member for Lee has the call.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Leader of the Opposition and the member for West Torrens are close to departing the chamber today. Member for Lee.