Grievance Debate

COVID-19 Economic Recovery

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (15:05): I think all of us in South Australia collectively as a community, indeed everyone in our great commonwealth, have been exceptionally proud about the way we have responded to the extraordinary challenge of COVID-19. Our health response here in this country, indeed our health response in South Australia, has been the envy of the world. With the exception of maybe New Zealand, we have been top of the pops as jurisdictions go in terms of the health response to coronavirus generally.

Nicola Spurrier and Grant Stevens deserve our commendation. They have run our health response, developed the advice, delivered the advice and made sure it has been adhered to to protect each and every one of us. Indeed, their policy response to COVID-19 has underpinned Australia's ability to protect our economy as best as possibly could be imagined during the course of such a pandemic. But the economic response here in South Australia, despite that extraordinary effort from Nicola Spurrier and Grant Stevens, has been sorely lacking.

Today, in a way that cannot be disputed, that has been shown by the Australian Bureau of Statistics' measure of our labour market here in South Australia. Sometimes when we talk about numbers and stats, it is easy to get lost in the analysis, the different interpretations and the tit for tat numbers, when in actual fact what these statistics represent are real people—real people in extraordinarily difficult circumstances.

They are families seeking to provide for themselves and they live in all four corners of our state. They live in our suburbs and they live in our regional communities. When we read on a page that 12,000 South Australians lost their jobs in one month alone, that is 12,000 people who can no longer provide for themselves, 12,000 people who can no longer provide for their families and 12,000 people who have not just lost an income but lost the dignity that work provides them.

When we think about those numbers, we contemplate and ask this question: is the government doing everything it possibly can to look after those people? When we look at the responses from those opposite to the questions today, the answer is a resounding no, and that should not just cause a degree of political alarm to those opposite but it should cause a great degree of concern to absolutely everybody.

Our solemn obligation, not just within the government but within the opposition and the parliament as a whole, is to make sure that we do everything we can to give those 12,000 people, on top of the other 130,000-plus people who are underemployed or unemployed in this state, the opportunity for work. When you look at the policy levers that are available to the Marshall Liberal government, you cannot help but be frustrated at the fact that they are not being pulled.

We see a lot more effort being put into advertising campaigns on infrastructure than actual infrastructure projects themselves. We are starting to get a little bit tired as a state of press releases about a women's and kids hospital, but nothing happening; press releases about The QEH, but nothing happening; press releases about Main South Road, but nothing happening; press releases about a north-south corridor, but nothing happening; and press releases about an art gallery that is not happening. All we hear is talk. The 12,000 people who lost their jobs—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my right!

Mr MALINAUSKAS: —in January do not want talk: what they want is action. Then there are the other policy options that are available to a state government to drive jobs in this state—such as tax policy. Well, this government do not have one. Their tax policy is, 'We will talk about cutting taxes over here, but then over there we will increase them to the tune of $250 million,' which is what we saw a couple of budgets ago. 'We will cut payroll tax,' which we did, I believe, nine times during the course of government. 'We will cut payroll tax, but by the way we are going to give you massive hikes in land tax. We might reduce the ESL over here, but we will come up with another $250 million worth of taxes over there.' That is not a thought-through tax policy. That is a grab bag of ideas, trying to tell people that you are doing something when you are not doing much at all.

A range of policy levers is available to this government that they are not pulling, and over 12,000 South Australians in one month alone lost their job. We have seen thousands of South Australians quit the labour market altogether because they have no confidence in what those opposite are doing. We have the worst youth unemployment rate in the nation, and this is causing heartache—heartache that deserves a response, heartache that deserves leadership. We are the only party in this parliament with work in our name, and we will make sure we put South Australians to work if we win the next election.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! I call to order the member for Chaffey, and I take the opportunity to remind members of the provisions of standing order 81A in relation to the grievance debate. The time allowed for a member to speak is not less than five minutes, with the discretion in the Speaker as to the conclusion of that time. So, in relation to the expiry, as I have applied at times in the past, there is no hard guillotine, and I just remind members of standing order 81A.