Question Time

State Economy

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS (Black—Leader of the Opposition) (14:17): My question is to the Premier. When was the last time that South Australia had the highest inflation CPI and unemployment rate in the nation? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. D.J. SPEIRS: For the last six quarters, South Australia has had the highest inflation in Australia, averaging nearly 80 points higher than the national average. In April 2024, South Australia had the worst unemployment rate of all the states.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries) (14:18): I am happy to take this question, and I thank the leader for it because it is of great concern to all Australians and, of course, none more so than the Reserve Bank about the inflationary pressures confronting the national economy at the moment, and our state certainly hasn't been immune from it. It is a concern, of course, that inflation remains stubbornly high, not just nationally but here in South Australia. While there could be a very detailed and nuanced examination as to why inflation is high, one of the principal drivers over the last 12 months has been housing costs.

Housing costs, including rents, have continued to escalate here in South Australia. That is why there has needed to be a comprehensive response to housing from the state government to boost supply, because supply is nowhere near keeping up with demand in our housing market—not in our housing market for people wanting to buy homes and certainly not in our housing market for people wanting to rent a home and rent a home affordably.

That is why I was very pleased to stand with the Premier, only yesterday, and make further very significant announcements. Hundreds of millions of dollars—

Mr Telfer interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: The member for Flinders says, 'It's a long bow.' If he wants to get on the ABS website and have a look at the components of inflation he would see that housing has been a key contributor of it. Statler and Waldorf over there are sitting up in the cheap seats, not knowing what they are talking about but lipping off anyway. It's that sort of ill-informed commentary—ill-informed commentary—which no doubt informs why all of you over there can't put forward any policy solutions to this. You have had nothing to say about housing, nothing whatsoever. 'Oh no, it's not my job; I only represent a regional area,' he says. 'No shortage of housing in my electorate,' he says. It's just extraordinary. We are concerned about high inflation, and we are concerned about the components—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Member for Flinders, interjections are in contravention of the standing orders. I don't want to hear anything more from you for the rest of question time.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Thank you for your protection, Mr Speaker. As I was saying, the components of inflation, which have been leading to these stubbornly high figures, have of course included large components like housing. It's why we should all be striving to come forward with policies and bring them to this place, which will make a difference.

I am pleased to report to the house that not only did yesterday's efforts make a significant difference to what we will see going forward in easing some of the pressures on our housing market but previous announcements that we have also made as a government will make a significant difference: the single largest land release in the state's history, once again to improve supply—to try to improve supply because we are not keeping up with demand.

The simple fact is we need more homes built in our state, and we need more homes built as quickly as possible. That is why all of the policy measures that we have been announcing, consistent with that aim, are designed to ease the pressure on our housing market and also ease some of the components of inflation, like housing costs, which have contributed to stubbornly high rates of inflation. We are very concerned about it, but I am very pleased to say that we are investing significant amounts of taxpayers' funds to tackle this problem.