Grievance Debate

State Budget

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:25): It was 2½ years ago that the Premier and his Treasurer stood in this place and delivered their first budget. At the last election, this government inherited an economy that was growing at 2.3 per cent per annum and an unemployment rate of 5.6 per cent, both figures comparing very favourably with national economic growth and national employment statistics.

Today, 2½ years later, 2½ years after that day when the Treasurer stood here and proudly told this place that he was cutting 29 job creation and support programs across government, what have we seen? We have seen our employment growth fall from 2.3 per cent first to 1.4 per cent and then, in the most recent financial year, to minus 1.4 per cent, the worst economic growth in the nation. Less than two weeks ago, unemployment statistics were released by the Australian Bureau of Statistics showing that under this government we once again have the highest unemployment rate in the nation. Since March 2020, moments before the coronavirus pandemic hit our shores, 16,000 jobs have been lost here in South Australia.

Of course, it is not the only bad statistic we have had in recent times. Along with that increase in our unemployment rate to 7.1 per cent, we also have the highest youth unemployment rate. We have the lowest participation rate in mainland Australia, which means fewer people are even bothering to engage in the workforce here in South Australia. Thousands of people have simply given up looking for work under the Marshall Liberal government. It is an extraordinary record.

How does the Premier defend this record? The Premier stands here and tells this place that all will be well and that the government is committed to a $16.7 billion infrastructure program. That is the best description: they have committed to it. They are not actually rolling it out; all they have done is announce it. We know under this government there is delay after delay after delay of these infrastructure projects, these projects that are meant to deliver the economic activity and the thousands of jobs the South Australian economy needs to get back on track.

What are those delayed projects? The Women's and Children's Hospital; The Queen Elizabeth Hospital upgrade, which the member for Cheltenham, the member for Port Adelaide and I have been waiting for this government to start on for three years; the Main South Road duplication; the Premier's own pet project, the Aboriginal Art and Cultures Centre; the North-South Corridor upgrade, with the alleged $9.7 billion commitment from this government, which does not start until 2024, more than three years down the track; and the Hove level crossing, being managed in the way that only the member for Gibson could possibly manage a project—and that is manifestly incompetently.

The Torrens Road level crossing project still has not started. The Fullarton Road-Cross Road upgrade project, which looks set to raze the gatehouse at Urrbrae, still has not started, nor has the pet project of the federal member for Sturt, the completely invisible former Chief of Staff to the current Premier, James Stevens. That has not started yet either. These are billions of dollars worth of work committed to by this government, yet they cannot seem to get a shovel in the ground.

Of course, you do not have to take my word for it. It is the government's own budget papers that point out the delays to these billions of dollars worth of projects. What does the construction data show, the national metric that shows how much construction activity is actually happening across South Australia and across the nation? It shows the largest contraction of all states and territories in the nation not just for construction data collectively but for engineering construction work—that work being done on major projects—and also building work done, including on residential properties.

The Premier says it is all okay. The payroll data tells a completely different story. The Premier might like to be reminded that South Australia has one in 11 workers currently receiving JobKeeper. One in 11 is a frightening statistic, particularly when you remember the warnings that we get from national economists that our economy is already heavily reliant on the public sector and on healthcare industries. We should be inoculated from the worst impacts of the coronavirus pandemic on our economy and on our workforce due to that over-reliance on the public sector and health industries, but the data says that we are not.

This government is failing to lead the economic recovery this state needs. We have been well served by Nicola Spurrier and Grant Stevens on the health response to the COVID pandemic. We are being let down by the Premier and his Treasurer on the economic response.

Time expired.