State Taxes

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (15:10): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier stand by his election promise that there will be no new taxes, no new tax increases? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TELFER: From 1 July, water bills for South Australians rose 3.5 per cent above inflation and will do so for every year for the next four years, meaning South Australian households will be on average $85 a year worse off and small business will be charged on average an extra $348 a year.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries) (15:10): I thank the member for his question and I also congratulate him on his new role in the shadow cabinet. I think it's a bit disingenuous to contrive the two issues that are raised by the member in his question. We made a clear commitment about no new taxes or tax increases, and we have honoured that commitment. Of course, it is entirely disingenuous to try to say that the annual water bill increases which have occurred by and large each and every year, with a couple of notable exceptions, under both previous Labor governments and under the previous Liberal government, constitutes the same thing.

An honourable member: They came down.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: That's right, they came down—

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni: They came down alright. We discovered the fraud you had, your faux costings.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: They came down in 2013 and they came down again under the term of the previous government for one year—for one year—out of the four-year regulatory period, and then they went up again. So let's just put to bed the contention of those opposite—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —that they cut water bills.

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley will leave the chamber until the end of question time, not only because he was on two warnings but because he has been yelling out the word 'fraud', which is entirely unparliamentary.

The honourable member for Unley having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Thank you for your protection, Mr Speaker. So I don't accept the member's conflation. We have not only honoured our election commitment—we have actually done better. We have cut taxes because we have abolished stamp duty for first-home buyers who are building a new house.

For those members opposite—and I heard the former shadow minister for finance, now shadow minister for cost of living—reiterate the demands of those opposite, that they want more spending, they want less taxes and they want lower debt. That is the approach of the Liberal Party of South Australia to state finance.

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Yes, if you are Norman Lindsay it can happen. You can have a magic pudding, that's right, but if you are not Norman Lindsay, and if you don't read historical Australian children's fiction, then it can't exist. That is not the recipe for financial management in the contemporary context. We have met our election commitment, we are proud to have met our election commitment, we are proud to have delivered the cost-of-living relief that South Australians most in need deserve from their state government. We meet our election commitments and we honour them, and I am glad we have done it in this area. What we haven't done is gone to an election and said 'lower taxes' and then jack up land tax, and alienate your traditional support base and drive them into the arms of your political opponents. That's what you do.