Economic Stimulus Package

311 The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (14 October 2020). As at 13 October 2020, has all of the $350 million announced as an economic stimulus on 11 March 2020 been allocated to specific initiatives?

(a) Please provide a list of the initiatives, along with an estimated cost for each initiative, that have been approved as at 13 October 2020?

(b) Which initiatives that have so far been approved were already budgeted for expenditure across the state budget's forward estimates period?

(c) As at 24 September 2020, how much of the $350 million has been expended by the government, on which initiatives and what amount per initiative?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier): I have been advised:

The government announced the first economic stimulus package of $350 million on 11 March 2020 in response to COVID-19.

The package included funding for range of areas including:

Bushfire response and recovery measure;

Roads infrastructure;

an additional $70 million to the Economic and Business Growth Fund; and

Investment in nature based tourism, local government projects through the Planning and Development Fund, country health facilities, social housing and grassroots sports facilities.

I can confirm that, having regard to the decisions taken in the 2020-21 budget, the full $350 million had been allocated to specific initiatives at 13 October 2020.

As announced in the 2020-21 state budget, the government is now injecting a record $4 billion into South Australia's economy to create thousands of local jobs over the next few years, driving South Australia's ongoing recovery from the economic challenge of COVID-19.

The government's stimulus spend leverages another $1 billion in commonwealth and local government and business funding, taking the total stimulus in the state to $5 billion.

The details of all these measures were included in the 2020-21 budget documents.

Examples of the support available include:

Round 2 of the emergency cash grants for eligible small businesses and not-for-profit organisations—$10,000 for those businesses who employ staff and $3,000 for small businesses without employees;

land tax relief to support tenants and landlords;

payroll tax relief for business, including payroll tax waivers for eligible businesses and a payroll tax exemption on JobKeeper payments;

Great State travel voucher scheme which provided $100 vouchers for accommodation in Adelaide to further boost the local economy;

support for the taxi industry and regional bus operators;

creation of a small to medium business advisory service to support businesses to access personalised business advice, assisting them in developing sustainable and robust expansion strategies and plans;

investment in nature based tourism and support for the tourism industry through the Tourism Industry Development Fund;

priority road infrastructure and safety projects;

acceleration of upgrading of country health facilities;

waived various fees and charges including liquor licencing; and

measures to protect tenants, including moratorium from eviction in relation to the non-payment of rent where they are suffering rental distress as a result of the pandemic.

I note that I have previously outlined the measures included in the original $350 million stimulus package in a response to Question on Notice 78 from 3 June 2020. The measures set out in that advice are being implemented by the government.