House of Assembly Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1) 54 1 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Land Tax Land Tax The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly Lee Land Tax The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (14:53): My question is to the Premier. Will the information that the government is prepared to now provide be within a tolerance of an error of 200 per cent this time? The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly Dunstan Premier Land Tax The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:54): I have been over this before, but I am more than happy to use question time in this way, to reprosecute exactly and precisely what has happened. I do point this house to the information that was— The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is on two warnings. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —provided by the former government with regard to aggregation back in 2015. They used Treasury modelling— The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order, sir. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Point of order. Premier, one moment. The point of order is for? The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: It's debate, again, sir. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: No, I do not uphold the point of order, and I will listen to the Premier's answer assiduously. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It's not debate in the slightest, and it confounds me— The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN House of Assembly The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The Premier has just reflected on your ruling. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: I will go back and check the footage. I didn't hear, in fairness, the Premier's remarks, but what I would like is for members on the left and right to be quiet so that I can hear the Premier's answer. I have the question: it was about land tax. I will listen to the Premier's answer. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I'm sorry, I thought I heard you say that it wasn't debate. If you— Mr Malinauskas interjecting: The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Well, I am sorry. As I have just said to the house, I did not hear that. If that is the Speaker's ruling, then I am happy not to continue with my line. But I make the point that, when talking about modelling, I am reflecting on the most recent time Treasury was asked to do the modelling on exactly and precisely what we put forward. The last time they did this was in 2015. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! Mr Malinauskas interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The leader has already been ejected once in question time. We have the question; please allow the Premier to answer. You will have an opportunity to ask questions after that. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The line of questioning that the member for Lee is pursuing is really a question about accuracy in modelling, and I make the point that the modelling that was provided in our state budget was from Treasury. It was exactly and precisely the same methodology that those opposite relied on when they provided information to the people of South Australia in 2015, and I make— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: And I make this point, because I think it is an important one: this is precisely why we didn't implement our measure on 1 July this year, because this is a complex reform and we were wanting to hear and we were keen to hear from people as to what we were putting— Mr Malinauskas interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The leader is warned. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: And we were pleased to hear from a large number of people who submitted information. On day one, on the public record on many, many occasions I said that if we could receive information that would suggest that the revenue from our measures would bring more money in that we would accelerate the rate reduction. I made that very clear, and that is precisely what we delivered. We received information— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that updated the methodology and the modelling, and we immediately accelerated— Mr Brown interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is called to order. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that rate reduction to make South Australia nationally competitive. In fact, we are now at the average of the mainland states. This is a major reform, and I think what we have demonstrated by working together on this side of the house with the people of South Australia is that we are up for reform. Reform isn't easy. There are always people who are going to have differing opinions, but what we have been able to demonstrate is a methodology for going about complex reform, not putting it in the too-hard basket and delivering for the people of our state.