Land Tax

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:31): My question is to the Premier. How does the Premier's land tax increase and combined $500 million worth of new fees, charges and taxes on South Australian households generate jobs growth in South Australia?

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: Point of order: the question contains argument.

The SPEAKER: I hear the minister. I am going to allow the question in this instance. Would you like to repeat the question? I am going to allow the Premier a go.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: How does the Premier's land tax increase and combined $500 million worth of new taxes, charges and fees on South Australian businesses and households generate jobs in this state?

The SPEAKER: There's a fair bit in that. I will not be taking debate points unless they are very good ones. Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:32): Thank you very much, sir. This provides me with another opportunity to talk about the substantial reduction in taxes that we put in place since coming to government. And they hate it opposite.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They absolutely hate it. They wouldn't know a tax cut if they fell over it. They wouldn't have a clue about what a land tax cut or any cut was.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: When they were in government, they routinely wanted to tax you on everything: go into a car park and they wanted to tax you. They wanted to put taxes on bank deposits—

Mr Hughes interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Giles is called to order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —here in South Australia—every single opportunity. We know that without any warning to the people of South Australia those opposite massively increased the tax on every household, every business in South Australia, by wrenching away that remission on the emergency services levy, costing taxpayers $360 million until we could get back in to fix the mess that they created. So we were very happy when we were elected to get on with lowering taxes in South Australia, freeing up the economy and, most importantly, creating jobs. That's exactly what we said we would do and that's precisely what has happened—

Mr Szakacs interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Cheltenham is called to order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —since we came to power. They hate it. They want to talk about everything—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —other than the fact that we have the highest level of employment in the history of the state. Let's take a look at tax and what we have done since we came to power: (1) we returned the emergency services levy remission and we are putting $90 million each and every year back into the economy here in South Australia. People were relieved. Every time they receive that bill now they say, 'Thank goodness. Thank goodness we've got a Liberal government in South Australia lowering costs on households and businesses in South Australia.'

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! We have the question.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We have put through the third tranche of the stamp duty reduction—

Mr Boyer interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Wright!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —in South Australia.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We also, and very importantly, removed all payroll tax on small business in South Australia as of 1 January this year. Any small business—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —now in this state with a payroll of up to $1½ million does not pay a cent. Of course, now what we are doing is pushing ahead with $70 million worth of land tax cuts to come into effect on 1 July next year.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They wouldn't know a tax cut if they fell over it because they have never, ever been near one—never been near one. We're very happy to be raising the threshold—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —at which people pay land tax in South Australia. This will take—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for MacKillop is called to order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —thousands and thousands of people who are currently subject to the unacceptably high land tax rates in South Australia.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It will take thousands from having to pay land tax in South Australia going forward. But we haven't stopped there—because we have dealt with the issue which has created an exodus of capital out of our state and repelled capital coming into our state for property, and that is the unacceptably high 3.7 per cent marginal tax rate for land tax in South Australia. For some reason, there are people on the other side of the chamber who want to defend the fact that we were the highest in the country. They don't want to accept the fact that the reality is that this was driving money out of our state into other jurisdictions.

South Australian investors were investing interstate, some of them quite close to you guys over there actually, I seem to remember in the paper. The reality is that they were investing interstate because they weren't having to pay 3.7 per cent. We are very proud of the fact that we are going to be driving that down to 2.4 per cent on 1 July next year. It's the average of the mainland states of Australia. It's an important reform. It's about time the Labor Party actually formed an opinion on the largest land tax cuts in the history of South Australia.

The SPEAKER: The Premier's time has expired. Member for Lee, then the member for Mount Gambier who has been patiently waiting. Member for Lee.