Economic Stimulus Package

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:24): My question is to the Premier. How much of the $350 million in economic stimulus announced by the Premier on 11 March this year—64 days ago—has actually been spent in the community as of today?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:24): The Leader of the Opposition asks about the stimulus money that we announced early on. There are two stimulus packages: the first one is $350 million and the second one is $650 million. As members in the parliament would know, I have also updated on additional amounts that have been dealt with by portfolio.

In terms of the $350 million that was announced, around $120 million of that related to new road infrastructure projects. These are projects that I know members in this place are extraordinarily excited about. They will have the ability to create new jobs, but, importantly, they will also improve road safety in South Australia and simultaneously, in many situations, they will improve the productivity of our road network in South Australia.

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! We have the question.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The second amount that we have announced as part of that $350 million is a $70 million increase—

Ms Hildyard interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Reynell!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —to the Economic and Business Growth Fund. I think members would appreciate that there hasn't been an expenditure from that yet. I think it is important and prudent that we as a government don't lose the methodology that we have used successfully to date to allocate money that is going to great economic activity in South Australia.

Ms Cook interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Hurtle Vale is on two warnings.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Obviously, we have announced $15 million worth of bringing forward of hospital maintenance upgrades.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We went through that yesterday, and I can announce to the house that there haven't been any changes since I provided an update to the house on that $15 million yesterday.

The minister for planning, transport and infrastructure, who is also the minister responsible for local government in the government here, has announced a very significant new program of working with the local government sector on what is called the Planning and Development Fund. I think that the expenditure that has now been authorised is in the order of $65 million. We are very pleased to be working with the councils. Many of those projects will begin extraordinarily quickly and create jobs.

The Hon. S.K. Knoll interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Minister for Planning!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Some of those jobs will be created this year; some of those jobs will be created next year. It's important to have a pipeline there. In addition to that, we announced earlier in the year $22 million worth of new expenditure, which is going to be involved with nature-based tourism. This is part of a larger program for our parks. It is part of our Parks 2025 strategy, which has been warmly welcomed by the people of South Australia.

I think most people were very pleased earlier in the week when the Minister for Environment and Water told us about the massive increase in the number of people who are booking to visit our parks and stay in our accommodation in those national parks. It is a massive increase—a more than 1,000 per cent increase on the same time last year. Of course, there has been—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader is warned. We have the question.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —the $10 million investment into public housing upgrades. The Leader of the Opposition asks the question, 'How much has been spent?' On that issue, for example, of public housing maintenance upgrades, of a total of $10 million, we know that $6 million of that will be spent this financial year—those contracts have already been put in place—and $4 million next year.

So there is an example, of that long list that I've given, where 60 per cent of it is going to be spent immediately this financial year and 40 per cent next year. They are important upgrades to public housing infrastructure in South Australia. We are going to come through this, and we are going to come through this stronger than before, upgrading our public housing amenity in South Australia and creating construction jobs along the way.

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