Business Confidence

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (14:28): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier believe that the 18 per cent decline in merchandise exports over the last 12 months has improved or damaged business confidence in South Australia?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:28): It's unacceptable. It's unacceptable, and we need to be increasing our exports out of South Australia. That's why we are acting decisively. Since coming into government we have opened two new offices in China: we have opened an office in Shanghai and we have opened an office in Guangzhou that complement the offices that existed when we came to government—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —in Jinan and Hong Kong. We have seen a 9 per cent increase in exports to China. We have also opened an office in Tokyo. We are in the midst of planning for office openings in the Middle East, in Malaysia and also in the US. We have announced that we will be opening an office in Texas—in fact, potentially even two offices in Houston and maybe even somebody in Austin. We know that this is a very important market, North America. It was one that was ignored by those opposite.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We are absolutely 100 per cent focused, and that's why we had work done by the Hon. Steven Joyce, the former finance minister in New Zealand, to look at the processes that we have put in place to arrest this situation. We are 100 per cent focused on growing the size of our exports, growing the size of our investment attraction into South Australia, increasing tourism in South Australia and also making sure that we can attract more international students.

Can I update the house that in terms of service exports, and in particular international students, South Australia performed well above average in Australia last financial year. We have now put out our international student strategy, which we have published. This was informed by the sector. It was coordinated and facilitated by government, but it is a sector plan that deals with international students.

Currently, the number of international students sits at around 38,000. We have a goal to grow that to 71,000 international students by 2030, and we are working very hard on that. We are ahead of schedule. We are making sure that StudyAdelaide is fully funded. But, yes, there is much, much more work to be done. We are up to that task.

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee and then the member for King.