State Economy

Mr DIGHTON (Black) (15:05): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer update the house on the South Australian economy?

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (15:05): I thank the member for Black for his question. I will do my best because we have some pleasing economic news and I know how much that frustrates and enrages the Leader of the Opposition. Good news is an anathema to the member for Hartley, the current Leader of the Opposition.

It is worth putting today's inflation data in some context because when this government was elected and when the federal government was elected inflation was already running rampant. It was already well above the target band of the Reserve Bank. In fact, at the beginning of May not only did we have inflation nationally running at more than 5 per cent per annum but we already had the Reserve Bank increasing interest rates in response to the inflationary pressures on Australians. So that was the record of the previous Coalition federal government: high inflation and increasing interest rates. That's what we started the last three-year period with.

What we have had today is a confirmation in the latest inflation data that our nation is winning the war against high inflation. Not only is it back within the Reserve Bank's target band of between 2 per cent and 3 per cent, it's back within that band both on the headline inflation figure and in the trimmed mean inflation figure—really good news for Australians. Remarkably, if you think in a period of three years we have had a federal government which not only has inflation under control but now has it under control to the extent that the Reserve Bank has already started cutting interest rates for the benefit of Australians, it shows—

Mr Teague interjecting:

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Well, that comes as some news to the member for Heysen, that interest rates are coming down and that some of the cost-of-living pressures are not quite as acute as what they have been thanks to the previous Coalition government. Maybe he lives in a different world from the other 99.5 per cent of the South Australian community; maybe, Mrs Slocombe-like, he can give us another anecdote about his cat—we will wait and see what his next contribution is. For the rest of the country, having today's inflation data coming out showing that we are back within the target band of the Reserve Bank is really good news for Australians and continues to lead national economic commentators to forecast good news for the Reserve Bank's next meeting starting in May. Let's hope we see some further improvement.

Here in South Australia we had inflation, particularly in Adelaide, higher than some of the other capital cities for that period, led principally because of pressures in housing costs. And what have we seen today in the latest data? Well, we are seeing that South Australia has recorded the lowest annual inflation figure of all mainland state capitals at 2.2 per cent, I am advised, which is terrific, rising by just 0.5 per cent on the last quarter compared to the national rate of 0.9 per cent. That also means good news for South Australia, good news for the CPI figures for Adelaide, and I think shows just how good a job the federal government—supported by this government—has done over the last three years getting inflation under control.