State Economy

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:18): My question is to the Premier. Are South Australians better or worse off under Labor? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: Since coming into government in 2022, analysis has shown that households with two average income earners have suffered a decrease in household savings of more than $11,000 per year.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:18): Again, I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question and maybe, for the sake of consistency, I would invite the Leader of the Opposition to again contemplate not what we say about ourselves but what others say about the state of South Australia. The Leader of the Opposition's question goes to the heart of whether or not the economic policies of the government are resulting in strong economic performance.

To that end, it is not a bad day to ask, because today the Australian Bureau of Statistics have released their labour force statistics and I am pleased to report to the chamber that the unemployment rate in South Australia is 3.7 per cent. It is the second lowest unemployment rate in the nation outside of Western Australia on a state-by-state basis. It speaks to a labour market that is substantially outperforming the rest of the country.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Flinders is on his final warning.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: But don't just look at the performance of the labour market; let's look at other industries too, whether it be the commonwealth State of the States report that has us as number one or whether it be on economic growth in this state. What is gross state product, where is gross state product on a per-capita basis, and what is the best performing state in the country in terms of gross state product on a per-capita basis? It is South Australia. On a whole range of different metrics and indices, on any objective assessment South Australia is outperforming the rest of the country.

The Leader of the Opposition would have people believe that his questions would seek to demonstrate that somehow in South Australia we are going backwards relative to the rest of the country, and the opposite is true. If you ask the question in totality in the context of elections, well, there will be an election. There will be an opportunity in 12 months' time for people to assess whether or not South Australia is doing better or worse under this government in comparison with the rest of the country.

But the more important point in making an assessment is: who actually has a plan to set it up for the long term? Who is doing the serious grunt policy work? Who is making the hard decisions to accommodate the growth that is now coming our way, in a way that hasn't come before us in decades? Who is making the tough decisions around planning? Who is doing the land reservation? Who is getting the pipes in the ground? Who is making the tax reform for first-home buyers so they have half a chance? Who is actually doing the work around rental reform, for instance, so that renters in this state have a better chance than they otherwise would? We are getting on with that task.

And what is the policy, what is the housing policy and the planning policy, from those opposite that they are submitting to the people of this state? It is a policy-free zone. It is a complete vacuum of policy. When we were getting together at the end of last year and planning on how we wanted to hit the ground running at the beginning of this year and what were the policy objectives we had in the first quarter of this year, I don't mind disclosing that we anticipated that at the 12-month mark those opposite would be releasing a big bang policy about what they wanted to take to the election. We are waiting; we are still waiting. But that is okay, because the vacuum that they create in terms of policy we are happy to fill, because this is a government with ideas and ambition for the future of the state and we are going to keep getting on with the task.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Gibson is warned. The member for Stuart.

The Hon. G.G. BROCK: Thank you, Mr Speaker. I thought you were warning me!

The SPEAKER: Never.