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 Mr MALINAUSKAS House of Assembly Croydon Leader of the Opposition Land Tax Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:16): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier take responsibility for the extraordinary uncertainty in the economy and the property market caused by his chopping and changing on land tax policy? The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly Dunstan Premier Land Tax The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:17): Can I say that South Australia is travelling in the right direction. We have been— Members interjecting: The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They hate good news. Mr Brown interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is warned. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: They hate good news. They hate the fact that we have another 15,000 people employed in South Australia since we came to government— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —almost 1,000 people per month. Those opposite— Mr Malinauskas interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —like to shout out it's a massive drop from the six weeks before the last election. They fail to want to reflect ever on the 16 years that they were in government when South Australia was nearly always at the bottom of the table. The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: When I look at key indicators like the ANZ Stateometer, which for the last two quarters has shown that South Australia is the only state in that top right-hand quadrant, the only state that has above-trend growth acceleration— Mr Malinauskas interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Leader! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that is something to be quite excited about. There's plenty more work to be done. Nobody on this side of the chamber is saying that the job is done. There is a huge amount of work to be done to provide hope to the next generation. That's precisely what we're doing. We're working very hard to create more jobs in South Australia. One of the fundamental parts of that, of course, is the work that the Minister for Innovation and Skills is doing to create 20,800 new apprenticeships and traineeships in South Australia. We rejected the position that we inherited from the previous government, when there was basically a freefall in apprenticeship commencements in South Australia and completions in South Australia. It was a disaster. We all know who presided over that: promotion to people who basically delivered poor results on that side of the chamber. By contrast, we put $200 million into our first budget to create new apprenticeships and traineeships. We are well on the way to fixing the complete debacle that we inherited in regard to TAFE in South Australia. We are very pleased that the work is being done to build certainty around the quality of this training institution going into the future. We have been working very hard to reduce taxes in South Australia. Let's be very clear— Mr Malinauskas interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Leader! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —on 1 January this year, we removed payroll tax— The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is called to order. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —for all small business in South Australia. These are the things that you do when you put the people of your state first. It is very easy to play politics and basically cherrypick the statistics that suit your cause— Mr Malinauskas interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Leader! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —but overall this state is moving in the right direction— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: There is plenty more work to be done. I have just returned from China and Korea and I think there are enormous opportunities. I don't know why the previous government didn't look at the opportunities that were in these massive markets. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order, member for Ramsay! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Since coming to government, we have opened an office in Shanghai, we have opened an office in Guangzhou, we have opened an office in Tokyo and we've got representation in Korea. We are doing everything we can to grow the size of our economy and there are some very good green shoots— The Hon. T.J. Whetstone interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Minister for Primary Industries! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —for our economy. One of the green shoots that those opposite always hate to reflect on was the turning around of the net interstate migration in South Australia. Under the previous government, each year there was a net migration out of this state: 5,000, 6,000, 7,000, getting towards 8,000 people per year net—net. When we look at the most recent statistics, it is down at 4,000, and our goal is to get it back to zero. Then it is our goal to actually bring people in a net position back to South Australia, and that only happens if you have a government committed to reform, a government that is committed to the people of South Australia. Mr Brown House of Assembly Mr Brown: Land tax will help. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Playford has been a consistent interjector for the last 10 minutes. He is on two warnings. If this continues, he will be leaving. Mr Brown House of Assembly Mr Brown: Thank you. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: You're welcome.