Goods and Services Tax

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:27): My question is to the Premier. Is the Premier aware of GST modelling undertaken which shows every state and territory other than Western Australia and the Northern Territory worse off under the GST deal negotiated in 2018? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance, responsible for modelling GST revenues for the commonwealth government, has modelled scenarios for GST revenues to the states and territories which show South Australia up to $258 million a year worse off than under the original GST arrangements.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:28): I am not particularly aware of the model that the member mentions but, of course, there are many models and many forecasts and, as I said in one of my previous answers, it is particularly volatile at the moment. Of course, GST is one of the major streams of income that we get from the federal government, but we also negotiate a range of national partnership agreements and specific purpose payments.

As the Minister for Infrastructure and Transport said before, we are very fortunate at the moment to have an excellent working relationship with the federal government, which has delivered a massive record $17.9 billion worth of infrastructure projects across the state. We couldn't do that without the federal government. So, yes, we get money from the federal government from GST; we also get money from the federal government in terms of the national partnership agreement, and also the specific purpose payments.

We are very pleased with the excellent support that we have from the federal government with the fifty-fifty funding for a range of metropolitan projects, and 80:20 per cent for a range of country projects which were left on the backburner by the previous government. That $17.9 billion that is currently being spent, of course, is creating thousands and thousands of new jobs in South Australia. It is one of the reasons why we now have record employment in South Australia.

There are very few places in the world that can say they have more people employed now than pre COVID. We are one of those places in South Australia—10,600 jobs in July. We can't be complacent, but I must say that I am buoyed by the statistic which came out today which showed that more than 50 per cent—

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order: standing order 98, debate. The Premier is talking about unrelated employment statistics. I asked him specifically about GST modelling from the Victorian Department of Treasury and Finance.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: And a study—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Yes, but not debate.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: In the little green book at your feet.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It is interesting, somebody complaining about debate as they are debating the debate. Anyway, I will leave it alone. I wasn't debating: I was actually providing really important information for the house that I thought most people would be interested in. Maybe the 10 or 20 people who are watching it online are more interested, I'm not 100 per cent sure.

The reality is that today we went past a very important milestone, where 50 per cent of people aged 16 and over have now had at least one single shot of their vaccination, maybe even more. The reason this is important—

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: There is a point of order, and I am actually going to uphold it this time, member for Lee.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Thank you.

The Hon. V.A. Chapman interjecting:

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: No, but I'm anticipating that it is to do with relevance.