Grievance Debate

Housing Stimulus Package

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:09): If you ever wanted an example of how badly this government is managing the state's economic recovery from the impact of the coronavirus restrictions, you only need to look at its performance today.

On the very day the federal government announces nearly $700 million of support for the national housing industry, on the very day the Prime Minister announces additional funding to keep tradies in jobs and on the very day the South Australian housing construction industry begs this state government to match the federal government's support and get in behind and back the South Australian construction industry, what does the state government do? It announces another tax increase, another round of hikes in fees, charges and taxes for South Australians, a round which of course includes increases to licensing and registration costs for tradies—on the very same day!

This is this state government's response. This is its contribution to the state's economic recovery in the housing construction industry. Should we be surprised? The whole country has known for the entirety of this working week that today Scott Morrison, Prime Minister of Australia, was going to announce a support package for the national housing industry. We know this because for the last four days it has been spread across every newspaper in the country.

And what has happened this week? We have had not one but two cabinet meetings here in South Australia, two opportunities for this government to make a decision to match that funding. Of course, the Premier would have known what the federal government was doing because this package was concocted by the national cabinet of which the Premier is a member. So there were no surprises here for the state government: they knew what was coming and they made a deliberate decision not to support the South Australian housing construction industry.

They have been begged for weeks by industry leaders, by builders, by small business owners, by individual tradies, to get in behind them and help them keep jobs going during these difficult economic times. Not only have we heard nothing for the housing construction industry here in South Australia but today we get a massive slap across the face to this industry with another round of taxes, fees and charges. It is remarkable.

We have nearly got an Everest to climb as a state. We went into this calendar year with the highest unemployment in the nation. We went into this calendar year with our economy at a standstill, with jobs growth stalled. I am pleased that the Premier can at least bring himself to make an announcement about stimulus funding, but what we would like to see is that talk actually backed up by action because what the Premier is not doing is he is not spending that money.

No-one in this government can tell the media, can tell the public or can tell this parliament how much of that money has actually been spent out in the community. There is not one minister responsible in the entire government, in either chamber of parliament, who is responsible for this state's economic recovery. No-one knows what is actually going on out in the community. No-one knows how much government money has been spent—or, more to the point, not been spent yet—to support South Australians in their jobs.

Over 40,000 people in this state have lost their jobs in the last two months. Every day that this government delays costs South Australians jobs. Today's delay has cost jobs, tomorrow's delay will cost more jobs and every day that this government remains silent on the housing construction industry, every day that this government cannot bring themselves to look industry leaders in the eye and be honest with them about whether they have got their backs or not will cost more jobs in this state.

The Premier says, 'Don't worry. I am told I was born for this.' Well, if the Premier was born for this challenge, I have to say that I would hate to see how he manages a challenge he was not born for because there seem to be a lot of challenges that this Premier is not up to, and this economic response to the crisis engulfing this state is clearly beyond this government. It is beyond the Premier, it is beyond the Treasurer and it is beyond every single member of this cabinet. They need to act and they need to act quickly.