State Economy

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:18): My question is indeed to the Premier. Does the Premier accept any responsibility for the fact that the state's economy has gone backwards since his government's election in March 2018?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:18): For starters, I don't believe for one second that anybody in this state thinks it's gone backwards. I have read some of the spurious information put out by the Labor Party dream machine over there. Quite frankly, it deserves a greater level of scrutiny—

Ms Stinson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Badcoe is on two warnings.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —than is provided obviously coming out of the Australian Labor Party at the moment. I don't think people really believe a single solitary word—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is on two warnings.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that comes out of the Twitter feed from those opposite. What they are concerned about is the spin, not the substance. I think most South Australians believe unequivocally that Australia—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader continues to interject. He is warned for a second and final time.

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

An honourable member interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Wait. You are warned for a second and final time. The member for West Torrens has a point of order.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, sir. The Premier is inducing—

Mr Pederick: Really? Twenty-three years, Tom.

The SPEAKER: Member for Hammond, you are warned. The point of order is?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Sir, the Premier, with his debate, is inciting the opposition to interject.

The SPEAKER: Provoking the opposition is definitely a bogus point of order. I will tell you how I am going to deal with this. I have the question: does the Premier accept responsibility (the way I caught it, leader) for the economy going backwards? Arguably, that contains some argument. In the spirit of a productive question time, I allowed the question to go, so I am going to give the Premier some scope. I assure the member for West Torrens that if he oversteps the mark I will pull the Premier back into line, but at the moment he has the call and I would like to hear his answer.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you very much. As I was saying, sir, I don't accept for one second that South Australia has gone backwards. In fact South Australia, facing some significant headwinds, is moving forward. It is patchy, there is no doubt about that, and we are the first to admit it. With the answers that I have already provided to the house, both today and in previous question times, people should be in no uncertain terms about the level of stress that is felt by people in regional and remote South Australia with the dry and drought conditions.

So things are very tough. They are tough in terms of weather conditions in South Australia and they are tough in terms of what is happening in the national and global economy. That is why we are doing everything we possibly can to lower costs on businesses and households, to stimulate economic activity and to look at those sectors that exist within our Growth State so that we can invest into those to create as many jobs as we possibly can. There are some very green shoots that are emerging in South Australia. Only the week before last, we had the Prime Minister here in Adelaide opening the new space—

Dr Close interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Deputy leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —headquarters in South Australia. Later this year we should have the Mission Control and then later again the Space Discovery Centre opening in South Australia. I think these are great opportunities. When we look at some of these fast-growing sectors—

The Hon. L.W.K. Bignell interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Mawson!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that exist in Australia and more broadly around the globe, we are investing in these areas to make sure we can create some real forward movement in these areas. I was very impressed recently when I looked at some of the key statistics for South Australia, particularly the statistic which existed for the net interstate migration. If there is ever a measure of the confidence of the next generation in South Australia and the policies of the government, you don't need to look any further than the net interstate migration. This is the measure of the difference between those people who are leaving South Australia and those who are coming back in.

I know you allow some compare and contrast, and for this purpose I will point out that under the previous government, under the previous regime for years in the lead-up to the election, we had increasing numbers of people leaving this state: 4,000, 5,000, 6,000, 7,000; we were heading towards 8,000 net—not gross, net—the difference between those leaving and those coming back in. If ever there was an indicator of people giving up hope for the future of South Australia under the previous regime, that was it.

I am happy to report to this house that since coming to government less than two years ago we have seen that net interstate migration figure plummet. In fact, it is now down to below 4,000, approximately half what it was under the previous regime. Are we satisfied on this side of the house? No, absolutely not. We know that there is much, much more work that needs to be done and that is why we are focused on delivering for this state. We want to get that number back to zero, and as soon as we get it back to zero we want to have a positive migration here to South Australia. That is our focus, that is our objective, and we will not move away from that objective any time we are on the treasury bench.