House of Assembly Fifty-Fourth Parliament, Second Session (54-2) 54 2 Parliament of South Australia House of Assembly published Question Time Economic Stimulus Package Economic Stimulus Package Mr MALINAUSKAS House of Assembly Croydon Leader of the Opposition Economic Stimulus Package Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:28): My question is to the Premier. What is the point of the Premier announcing an economic stimulus package first when he is the last to spend it? When will his words start to turn into actions? Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: That question definitely contained argument, so I am going to uphold it. Because it is the Leader of the Opposition, I am going to give him one opportunity to rephrase or ask another question and then we are moving to the member for Heysen. Mr MALINAUSKAS House of Assembly Mr MALINAUSKAS: Thanks, Mr Speaker. My question is to the Premier. When it comes to stimulus, when will the Premier's words actually translate to actions for jobs in this state? The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly Dunstan Premier The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:29): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question. When you are beginning a project like a $120 million upgrade to roads, although the construction work on the road doesn't begin, in fact a lot of the design work has already begun. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! Premier, be seated for one moment. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I don't know why the Leader of the Opposition is constantly so angry. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Premier, be seated for one moment. The member for West Torrens is warned for a second and final time, and if this continues he will be leaving. It has been a while since a minister has been ejected, but if I have to restore order and do so today I will eject one. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I am not quite sure why the leader is so— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —angry today. It does seem out of character. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Often he is quite placid. Now, all of a sudden, he is quite aggressive. I don't know whether there has been a caucus meeting, whether they might have all workshopped that you need to stand up and be a bit tougher. Maybe they did a bit of research saying that Kouts can't come forward any more, that's not acceptable to the people of South Australia, the Leader of the Opposition has got to person up. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The Premier will be seated; the point of order is for debate. The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS House of Assembly The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The Premier is mocking your earlier ruling. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: I will be the judge of that. I believe he is debating. I ask the Premier to come back to the substance of the question or conclude his answer. The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is on two warnings. The Premier has the call. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It was a broad question, as you would be aware— The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Yes, open ended. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and in some ways a provocative question but, nevertheless, one that I am very, very keen to answer once— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —Mr Angry has calmed down over there today. The reality is that there is plenty of expenditure occurring under this government with stimulus and plenty more which is planned, and that's what the people of South Australia want: a plan from a health perspective and a plan from an economic perspective. I thought one of the things that I would do would be to compare and contrast our response to this global crisis with the previous government's response to the GFC. I thought it was quite instructive, and I think it is something that you, sir, and the people of South Australia, should be aware of. We know there was a very serious economic crisis going back to the GFC. So what was the former government's response? The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: The member for Lee can leave for the remainder of question time under 137A. The honourable member for Lee having withdrawn from the chamber: The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It is interesting that that member in particular would be ejected. The Hon. V.A. Chapman interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Maybe he wouldn't want to hear because he was working for the treasurer at the time of GFC. The government's response at the time— The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS House of Assembly The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Point of order. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Point of order, Premier. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —was not to maintain— The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Premier, please be seated for one moment. The point of order is for debate. The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS House of Assembly The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: And, sir, it is disorderly to the house to name members who are not present. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Yes, he is beginning to move that way. I am going to respectfully ask the— Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Is the Minister for Innovation confused? It was debate, I am upholding it and I would ask the Premier to come back to the substance of the question. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The substance of the question was the alacrity with which this government is responding to a global crisis, which I have outlined with a $1 billion—a thousand thousands—response plus, and I was comparing and contrasting that with the previous government because, unbelievably, we have had some criticism. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Order! The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Well, actually 10,000 thousands, I think. But, anyway, the gist of this one goes like this: after the GFC, the previous government decided to sack thousands of public servants, not good for employment. Then they decided to postpone or cancel projects in South Australia. They were cancelling hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars worth of capital projects and then they completely eliminated the project with regard to the— The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Premier— The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —prisons, and we then paid tens of millions of dollars in penalties. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Premier, be seated. The point of order is for debate. The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS House of Assembly The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, sir, and I am worried about the Premier. The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: I uphold the point of order and I ask the Premier to come back to the substance of the question. The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL House of Assembly The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Unlike the previous government, we haven't sacked thousands of public servants, we haven't postponed projects and we haven't cancelled projects, making the taxpayers of South Australia pay massive penalties to the very people they awarded contracts to that they cancelled. More than that, I took a look because I heard the Leader of the Opposition and the member for Lee come out and say we should completely wipe out any increases in fees, taxes and charges. I thought, 'Well, it was 1.9 per cent and there are people who are employed who are going to continue to make taxes and pay taxes during this period of time,' but I thought, 'Let's just have a look at what happened in the GFC.' Did they wipe it out completely? 4.2 per cent—that's what they did during this. I am happy to put my response up side by side any day of the week. Members interjecting: The Speaker House of Assembly The SPEAKER: Terms like 'Mr Angry' and 'Peanut' are not helpful, and if I hear anything like that I may be asking members to withdraw them. I am just putting members on notice. Let's dial the temperature down a bit.