Question Time

State Budget

Mr SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:05): My question is to the Premier. Is the government still committed to running surplus budgets across the next four years without imposing new taxes or increasing existing taxes?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer) (14:05): I congratulate the member for Black on his re-election and also taking on the position of Leader of the Opposition. We wish him moderate success in that role, of course, but most sincerely our best wishes go to him in this new role. Once again, we get the continuation of the baseless fear and smear campaign which was run at the last state election by those opposite. The ongoing allegation that—

Mr GARDNER: Point of order: standing order 98. The minister is about a minute into his question and he's already debating the matter.

Mr Whetstone: That's right. That's how long it took him.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: The member for Chaffey, not quite yet. The question was about the government's commitment, and that has a bit of prehistory to it, so I will allow the minister to give some prehistory and also get to the substance of the question.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: If that's how Liberal frontbenchers count, it's little wonder the budget is in deficit at the moment. We made it absolutely clear that not only would we be delivering a comprehensive reform agenda, a policy agenda, led in principle to getting our health system back on track, but we would be funding those commitments in a way that wouldn't need to impose new taxes and charges on the people of South Australia, that wouldn't see changes in tax policy, that wouldn't see what we saw in the last four years, and that is a governing party go to the people of South Australia breaking its election commitments when it came to tax policy.

We had the approach of those opposite. They promised to, I think, take the axe to land tax, and then we saw, less than 18 months later—

Mr GARDNER: Point of order: it's been the status of this house that the government is not responsible for policies of former governments, so when the Treasurer makes claims about former Liberal policies he is contravening standing order 98.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: My reading of that comment is that he was making an observation; he wasn't taking responsibility for your party's decisions. I will listen to what the minister has to say, but I ask the minister to stay on the tenet of the question.

Mr Whetstone: Concentrate, sir.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Member for Chaffey, I don't need your advice, please.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: What we won't be doing is replicating a full-frontal assault on property owners, like what happened in 2019 with the previous government's land tax reforms. What we won't be doing—

Mr GARDNER: Point of order: debate pure and simple and utterly against the standing orders.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: Speakers—and there are a few of those on this side—have said that there is always a bit of latitude for compare and contrast; is that correct, Mr—

Mr Teague: You're the boss.

The DEPUTY SPEAKER: 'You're the boss,' right, I am. That's right. Treasurer, you have the call. I think you can continue.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: We won't be conducting a full-frontal assault on property owners. We won't be conducting a full-frontal assault on motorists, like what happened in 2019—not only an increase beyond the bounds of the government's regular fees and charges setting regime but also and up to a 30 per cent increase in the fees and administration charges imposed on motorists when they transact with the government—with those two things alone designed to raise more than $30 million of extra revenue per year from motorists.

What we won't be doing is increasing, for example, the solid waste levy by 40 per cent—not only a bin tax on every South Australian household and business but also something that saw a direct result in increases in council rates to more than two-thirds of metropolitan households as a result of that unheralded, unprecedented tax increase.

At the last election, we promised that we won't be doing that to the people of South Australia. Unlike those opposite, we think that our election commitments are important, and we will be upholding all of them, including those we made on tax policy.