Business Investment

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:54): That's okay, Mr Speaker, we like it when he's like this. My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier explain why business investment in South Australia is the lowest in the nation? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I am happy to explain yet again.

Leave granted.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: The most recent CommSec State of the States report shows new plant and equipment investment by business in South Australia is down 7 per cent over the last 12 months—again, unfortunately, the worst result in the nation.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:54): The cherrypicker is at it again. We have had some skill shortages in South Australia. I don't know whether they extend to the cherry sector, but if they do I am reliably informed by the member for Chaffey that we do have a shortage of cherrypickers in South Australia. I don't know that there is a cherrypickers' association of South Australia, but I'm going to ring them up and I'm going to say that we've got some very, very skilled cherrypickers here in South Australia. We need to deploy them to work on something that is going to be productive for our state.

Confidence is doing extraordinarily well. The BankSA State Monitor survey results for February show business confidence reached—are you ready for this?—the highest level since 2005, increasing by 4.3 points to reach 129.9 points. Did Business SA and their survey get it completely wrong? Did the Leader of the Opposition get it right? I don't think so, but let's see if there are any other corroborating pieces of evidence in terms of confidence in South Australia.

What we see is consumer confidence. Again, BankSA State Monitor survey results for February show consumer confidence at the highest levels in over 10 years, increasing by 9.2 per cent to 124.9 per cent. So why the constant negativity? Why this constant referral back to 2017-18 when the Leader of the Opposition was in that cabinet? What was so exciting about that time? That's the time, of course, that he closed the Repat—one of the most disgraceful chapters in the history of this state. That was a disgrace. That wasn't a period to be proud of. That was a period where you should hang your head in shame.

We know that there are still many challenges that our state faces. We know that there are many programs that still need to be rolled out to make sure that we can get the full effect and benefit of those programs. That's why we have not just stimulus here in one year or stimulus related to a two or three-month period but that stimulus goes over a four-year period. Next month, I look forward to welcoming the Hon. Rob Lucas from another place down to this great chamber, sir, and I'm sure you will welcome him here to present the next budget because this will be a very important budget—an important budget for our state.

We have weathered the storm of the coronavirus pandemic, but we cannot be complacent. It is not over. We can see what is happening in other parts of the world at the moment. We can't be complacent. We also need to make sure that we can get the best economic bounce out of this as possible. I genuinely think that there is a silver lining to this otherwise dark cloud of the coronavirus.

I do think that people now regard South Australia as the safest state in the safest country on this planet. I do think that previous ideas that you could only be successful if you were operating from the 88^th floor of a high-rise in Melbourne, Sydney, Brisbane, Singapore, Hong Kong, London or New York have been challenged. The whole world has learnt to work from home through necessity. This is an opportunity for us in South Australia. This is an opportunity for us to re-present South Australia and that is what's happening.

You get companies like Accenture, one of the largest consulting companies in the world, now choosing to set up home in South Australia. You get companies like Google and Amazon coming—

Mr Malinauskas: The opportunity exists and you are wasting it.

The SPEAKER: The leader will cease interjecting.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —to South Australia. You see investors here at the moment for SouthStart. There is a buzz of activity and positivity about the future in South Australia. We are not out of the challenge yet. There is more work to be done, but South Australia is heading in the right direction under this government.