Business Confidence

Mr TELFER (Flinders) (14:52): My question again is to the Minister for Small Business. Has South Australian business confidence decreased and, if so, why? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

Mr TELFER: According to the latest SA Business Chamber survey, South Australian business confidence fell another 13.9 points in the March quarter, the lowest since the depth of the COVID pandemic.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee—Treasurer, Minister for Defence and Space Industries, Minister for Police) (14:52): I am aware, of course, that the National Australia Bank Monthly Business Survey has been released today. It is important to put in context because while those opposite revel in the opportunity to highlight bad news, it is also true that there are other banking surveys that show that business confidence is positive in South Australia, such as BankSA, the bank more commonly known for representing banking customers here in South Australia.

I am the last one to try to claim that business conditions have not been difficult in a national environment of high inflation and escalating interest rates. As I advised the house in the last week when we met, in May 2022 when the Albanese government was first elected, the inflation rate was already running at more than 5 per cent per annum and interest rates had already commenced their increase. That was what was left to our incoming federal government at May 2022: runaway inflation and increasing interest rates.

As I said last week, it is absolutely remarkable that within one three-year federal term not only is headline inflation back within the Reserve Bank's target band but so is the trimmed mean inflation, at 2.9 per cent. That is absolutely remarkable, and we have already seen interest rates start to fall. Most economists and financial market commentators in Australia are expecting a further reduction in interest rates next week at the Reserve Bank's next meeting, and many economists are forecasting further interest rate reductions over the next 12 months.

It's not surprising in that context that, if you are a small business operator and you have just been bashed about by the vagaries of COVID, the rapidly changing COVID restrictions which were placed on our state—and of course, Mr Speaker, you were representing your electorate with the hundreds of small businesses, particularly in tourism and hospitality; we had such gems as it being okay to consume an alcoholic beverage while at an altitude of three and a half feet or lower but being illegal to consume an alcoholic beverage at five feet or higher, for example, because apparently the predilection of the virus was to target those people consuming alcohol while standing rather than being seated. So if you have come through that, through those really challenging circumstances when margins in hospitality are already tight, and then a federal Coalition government—

The Hon. D.G. Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley will be quiet.

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: —leaves the national economy with soaring inflation and escalating interest rates, it is not unexpected that in the course of doing business people are not feeling particularly confident about their conditions. The difference is things are on the improve nationally and here in South Australia, regarded as the best place in the nation to do business by none other than the Business Council of Australia.