South Australian Property Sector

The Hon. A. PICCOLO (Light) (14:20): Can the Treasurer update the house on the South Australian property sector?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries) (14:20): I thought given how positively and effusively the house received my response to a question on the state's economy yesterday, I should take another opportunity to update the house with some further encouraging news about the performance of an important sector of our economy: the construction and property industry.

As many members would know, South Australia's property and construction sector employs a lot of South Australians and drives a substantial amount of our economic activity. That has especially been the case in the last two years. In fact, you might recall that during the course of 2015, 2016 and 2017 a previous Labor government took the nation-leading decision to abolish stamp duty on commercial property transactions throughout our economy, giving up an eye-watering amount of revenue but providing an incredible incentive for inbound investment into our state's economy.

Today the Property Council of Australia and Procore have released the results from their survey of confidence in the property sector. It shows that South Australia's property sector has the highest confidence levels in the country, well ahead of other states. This survey measures confidence and expectations of industry participants on multiple issues affecting the industry. Perhaps most notable for our purposes here today, this survey measures industry views on state government performance in planning and managing growth.

According to the Property Council, industry views of state government performance under the leadership of the Premier have the Malinauskas Labor government as the best performing in the nation. The South Australian participants in the property sector also have the highest expectations for state economic growth in the nation, and that is a good indication of confidence in this important sector for our state's economy. South Australia also ranked first on forward work schedule expectations and debt finance availability.

As the house might recall, this survey follows a previous survey from the Business Council of Australia (BCA), which recognised the state government's effectiveness at creating a business-friendly operating environment. The BCA labelled South Australia as the best place in the nation to do business—the best place in the nation to do business. The head of the Business Council, Mr Bran Black, said, and I quote:

I think that South Australia with the right regulatory settings, with a government that is clearly ambitious for business investment, policy initiatives such as a State Prosperity Project, focusing on AUKUS—those things really count.

That is further good news from a key part of our economy.

I remind the house that construction activity has also been a key driver and contributor to how our state's economy has performed in the national context. The amount of construction work done was one of the three leading indicators where South Australia led national economic performance in the CommSec State of the States report, the third quarterly report in a row from CommSec where South Australia has ranked as the best performing economy in the nation. I recognise that the nation's economy is slowing. I recognise that we are faced with challenges in particular sectors, like the agricultural sector, but we approach those challenges from the strongest possible position because of the performance of our state's economy.