Goods and Services Tax

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:09): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier advise the house why the GST deal his government negotiated in 2018 must now be renegotiated? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The Treasurer, Rob Lucas, told The Advertiser in an interview on 18 June 2021, and I quote:

The battle for a re-elected government, or a new government, is to convince the commonwealth government of the day, whoever it is, to renegotiate the deal…

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:09): I thank the member for his question; it's an important question. Certainly, the Board of Treasurers—most of them, anyway—have looked at the deal, several years ago of course, in light of the current projected GST distribution and sought to make some changes. At this stage, the federal Treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, and the Prime Minister have ruled that out. Nevertheless, certainly that deal hasn't gone as expected and there are some very significant GST distributions to the west at the moment. If you think about what horizontal fiscal—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Talk about maladministration! What's wrong with you? Why don't you sign up to it?

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! Premier, I will speak. The member for West Torrens is warned for a second time.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: He clearly has a few issues there at the moment. I'm not quite sure—

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Yes, a quarter of a billion dollars a year lost to the state because of you.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens!

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis: Quarter of a billion a year.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for West Torrens, you have been warned twice. I am in the Speaker's chair for the first time in question time. I don't want to be throwing people out, but you have been warned twice.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The basis of horizontal fiscal equalisation, of course, is making sure that the GST, one of the pieces of legislation which was opposed by the Labor Party—violently opposed by the Labor Party. They hated the concept. They fought it for years and years and years. Ultimately, the Australian parliament decided it was in the best interests; now they are the experts of GST, the very—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —legislation that they—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The leader is called to order.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —vehemently opposed, they are now warmly embracing. The basis of the GST is what we call horizontal fiscal equalisation. A change was made, which all jurisdictions of course supported—Labor and Liberal—right across the country. Again, those opposite completely ruled out the position that their own colleagues interstate took with regard to this situation.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Of course—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order, leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It's—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Sir, there's something going on over there.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Premier, take your seat for a moment. The leader, I am reluctant to warn the leader but I am calling the leader to order and warning him for the first time. In this place, we ask questions and the minister responsible answers and will be heard in silence.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Thank you, sir. Thank you for your protection. It was quite extraordinary—but I know why they are upset. I know exactly and precisely why they are upset. They were in for 16 years—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order! The member for Playford is warned for the first time. The member for Lee is warned for the first time.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I know why they are upset. They were in government for 16—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Mawson is called to order. Member for West Torrens, you're on thin ice.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: When they were in government for 16 years they left with a report card from the independent umpire, the ratings agencies. The ratings agencies look at all jurisdictions.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Leader, a question has been asked of the Premier. I am interested in his answer. I am warning the leader for the second time, and I would be very reluctant to throw the leader out.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Lee is warned for the second time.

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: As I was saying, those opposite are very touchy on this subject. They were in government for 16 years. The independent umpire gave them a report card; in fact, they gave every single jurisdiction a report card, and the fiscal situation in South Australia was ranked by those three independent ratings agencies, and we were ranked bottom in the country, below Tasmania. Since coming to government and—

Members interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —applying fiscal discipline, we have again been rated by those independent agencies. Standard & Poor's, Moody's, and Fitch have all upgraded South Australia. In fact, we are at the highest point we have been for a very long period of time. Whilst those opposite want to throw stones with regard to our performance in government, with regard to the budget, we actually prefer to listen to the experts and the experts have given a glowing report to South Australia. In fact, we have got one more year of the situation with putting forward a deficit, but then we will be returning to the black.

Mr MALINAUSKAS: Point of order: standing order 98, debate. The question was not about the Marshall Liberal government quadrupling debt: the question was about GST revenues that are now $250 million a year worse off as a result of the deal that this government has supported.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The leader is correct. The question was about GST. The Premier has been doing his best to answer it with numerous interruptions. There are three members of the opposition on two warnings. Premier, can you wrap up your answer in the last 20 seconds.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Yes, certainly the Treasurer, working through the Board of Treasurers, which he is the chair of, has a different position from the federal government with regard to the distribution of GST going forward. This is an issue that will continue to be prosecuted. It will be very interesting to see what the Australian Labor Party's position is at the federal level—

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Time has expired.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —whether they will support changes to that GST distribution that many Labor treasurers signed up to at the time.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Time has expired, Premier.

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Lee, I have not given you the call yet.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: I thought his time had run out, sir. Sorry.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Lee, his time had expired. I had not yet—

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Yes, but he was still talking.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Don't argue. I had not yet given you the call. That's how it works. I am going to say one more thing to the Leader of the Opposition. He is on two warnings and I am reluctant to throw the leader out, but continual interjections will finish that way. Member for Lee, you have the call.