State Debt

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:13): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier guarantee that interest rates on the government's debt will remain low until it is paid off?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:13): Well, it's almost impossible to believe the questions today. Can I guarantee interest rates? I don't know whether those opposite understand the way that interest rates work. They are not set by the state government. It is very—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! We have the question, leader.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —difficult to understand where this line of questioning is going. The fact of the matter is that nobody can guarantee what interest rates are going to be into the future, but what we can do is look at what is happening in the global market at the moment. We can look at what is happening in the Australian market at the moment.

What we have heard overnight, of course, is that many very significant commentators, including one of our major four banks in Australia, have predicted that the official rate will drop below 1 per cent, so we are in an environment at the moment that is the lowest interest rate environment of my lifetime—51 years on this earth. All predictions at the moment are that that is going to continue and perhaps ease going forward.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: For some reason, those opposite think that this is a bit of a disaster. Quite frankly, I think a low interest rate environment is very good for us to service the increased debt that we have in South Australia at the moment. We are using this opportunity that is presented to us at the moment, making the most of it, investing in productive infrastructure, which was neglected by those opposite when they were in government.

When we came to government, there was a huge amount of work that we needed to do in terms of investment in productive infrastructure—particularly in roads, both in metropolitan Adelaide and regional South Australia—investing in schools and hospitals. They are things that should have been done by the previous government, but they weren't. We are not complaining about it: we are getting on with it. We are very proud to be investing $11.9 billion—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader and the member for West Torrens, please cease interjecting. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We are very proud to be investing $11.9 billion in this budget. This is a budget which builds for our state and builds into the future.