Business Council of Australia

Ms CLANCY (Elder) (14:37): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier please inform the house of the findings of the Business Council of Australia report into regulation across jurisdictions?

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:37): I thank the member for Elder for her question. I know that the member for Elder cares a lot about the businesses that exist within her electorate, of which there are a substantial number, small and large. The member for Elder does appreciate the employment opportunities that are created on the back of that, so I appreciate her interest in the question.

In recent days, the Business Council of Australia, which conduct regular analysis of performance of various jurisdictions across the country in different forms, released their Regulation Rumble. It was a report done to assess the relative performance of jurisdictions around the country in terms of their settings about attracting investment, particularly in the property sector. I am very, very pleased to report that the Business Council of Australia in both categories it was measuring had South Australia ranked first in the nation—first in the nation.

They went on to say a range of highly complimentary remarks in respect of the policy settings that we have here in South Australia, including:

South Australia ranks highly because it has no stamp duty on commercial property transactions.

This reform was of course made by the former Labor government to abolish commercial stamp duty on top of very substantial planning reforms that now makes us the place in the country—

Mr Patterson interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morphett!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —to be able to invest.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morphett! Order! Member for Chaffey! Order! Member for Florey! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: It comes on the back of a range of other reports that have been released in recent days. We had the Housing Industry Association Housing Scorecard ranking South Australia as best in the country. The ANZ Property Council Survey, not famed for providing accolades to Labor governments in the past, ranked South Australia as being the equal leader in the country tied with Western Australia. It comes on the back of other positive reports showing that we are leading the nation in respect of retail sales, we are leading the nation in terms of new home sales, we are at full employment and record low youth unemployment rate.

Just last week, the ABS released the gross state product figures showing that South Australia in the June quarter is leading the nation in growth in respect of the gross state product. On almost every single indicator that has been released around the country, from the Business Council, to the Property Council to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, to our ratings agencies, which have just upgraded the credit rating of the South Australian budget—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: —in every respect we see regular and active and repeated endorsement of the economic policy settings of this modern Labor government, a modern Labor government that is genuinely making the tough decisions to get our budget back on track but also to put—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier has the call.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: The rating agencies have upgraded the state budget—

The Hon. J.A.W. Gardner interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Morialta!

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: We have active policy settings to attract investment to the state. We are proud of that record. It is momentum that is worth building on, which is exactly what this state government is going to deliver.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for Morialta and the member for Hartley are both on their final warnings.