Goh, Dr T.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens) (14:07): My question is to the Premier.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader, be quiet. I am trying to listen to this question.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Does the Premier agree with Dr Timothy Goh that he is abusing his office as Premier of South Australia to silence those who oppose his aggregation policy?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:07): I am happy to address this issue. I am not sure whether I have met Dr Goh—certainly not in any formal capacity or certainly not recently. Dr Goh is obviously a very—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is called to order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —successful professional in South Australia and he has a different opinion from that of the government. That's fine. People can have their own opinion—

The Hon. A. Piccolo interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Light!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —with regard to any policies that any government puts up. We celebrate Dr Goh's success, but it does not move us to change our position. We have been elected not to respond to those who shout the loudest via social media or via any public comments that they make: we are elected to govern on behalf of all South Australians.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is called to order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We made it clear—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that we completely rejected the position of those opposite who presided over the highest land tax in the entire country, driving investment dollars out of South Australia.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order: this is pure debate, sir.

The SPEAKER: The point of order is for debate. I have allowed the Premier some preamble. The Premier was speaking to matters that I believe were germane to the question. If he starts to deviate too far, I am going to pull him up. Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The point that I am trying to make, sir, is that, of course, when there is reform on the table there will be different opinions. Some people will be for; some people will be against. We are not going to be swayed by those people who go to social media with a difference of opinion. Reform means that you can very rarely satisfy every single person. We have been elected on this side of the house—that is what happened at the election in March last year—to govern on behalf of all South Australians, and we chose to pursue lower taxes here in South Australia. We said that we would deliver lower taxes and that is precisely what we have done.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: In our first budget we outlined bigger tax cuts—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —than had ever been in a state budget in the history of this state, and in our most recent budget—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —we put a new land tax position. We have nuanced that position since the budget was handed down, and we did that in response to the feedback—

The Hon. A. Piccolo interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Light is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that we have received. We were very clear—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —when we brought down the budget that we had a different position from those opposite. They would bring down budget after budget—

Dr Close interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader is called to order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —where they would announce it and implement it a few weeks later on 1 July.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order, sir: the Premier is debating, again.

The SPEAKER: Has the Premier finished? I think the Premier has finished his answer. I ask that members on my left not interject; I remind them that it is disorderly to do so. I am going to switch to the member for Elder and come back to the member for West Torrens. The member for Elder.