Question Time

State Taxes

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA (Hartley—Leader of the Opposition) (14:13): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier stand by his election promise that Labor would introduce no new taxes, no tax increases? With your leave, sir, and that of the house, I will explain.

Leave granted.

The Hon. V.A. TARZIA: Since coming into government, Labor have implemented a GP payroll tax grab, an increase to SA Water bills of around $85 per household and $350 for businesses and last week approved increases to several government fees and charges well above the inflation rate.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Premier) (14:13): I thank the Leader of the Opposition for his question because this is an important area of government policy through which we think we have entirely honoured our commitment to the people of South Australia. That has been evidenced through a number of budgets that the Treasurer has delivered, where we haven't created new taxes, we haven't increased taxes. We certainly haven't done it retrospectively like we have seen occur in a very recent iteration of a government here in the state of South Australia. But also, critically, we have done that in such a way that has underpinned a budget position that has delivered budgeted surpluses, and that has been as a result of a lot of diligent, hard work and consistent policymaking.

With respect to fees and charges, which of course was the central focus of the Leader of the Opposition's question, it is important to understand the history of the way fees and charges have applied here in South Australia in recent times. For a period that was certainly longer than a decade—I think it might be closer to 20 years—throughout the course of the Rann-Weatherill government, and I think even during the period before, in the Brown-Olsen government, there was a set formula that would inform how fees and charges would go up and it was a formula that was informed by South Australian CPI, in conjunction with what was happening to public sector wages here in the state of South Australia.

That was a set formula, and a formula that enjoyed bipartisan support and application in governance across political persuasions, that would result in a rudimentary perfunctory exercise in calculating what would happen to that formula.

The Hon. V.A. Tarzia interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The leader will come to order.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Then what happened is we had the election of a new Liberal government, the Marshall Liberal government, of which the Leader of the Opposition was a cabinet minister. And what did they do with that formula that applied in the state of South Australia for the better part of 20 years? They ripped it up and then the first thing they did after they tore apart that formula was jack up fees and charges on hardworking South Australians, small to medium business enterprises in the state of South Australia, and develop an increase in fees and charges that was many multiples of the rate of inflation. So the party—the party of small enterprise, the party of low taxes, completely abandoned that political philosophy and at the first chance started jacking up fees and charges at an exponential rate.

And then, if that wasn't enough, they decided then to apply a retrospective grab on land taxes on South Australians aimed at hardworking mums and dads—

The SPEAKER: The deputy leader?

Mr TEAGUE: There is a point of order under standing order 98(a). He is three minutes in and so far it is entirely about anything other than responding to the question, which is about his own government.

The SPEAKER: I disagree, as I usually do, with these sorts of calls, because what we are getting here is a history lesson of where we get to to be in this financial year and the Premier has four minutes to answer the question and it's quite within the standing orders to provide some context and some historical background to the answer that he's giving.

The Hon. P.B. MALINAUSKAS: Which brings us to the election of this government and the commitment that we have made and we have honoured. With respect to fees and charges, we have abandoned the policy of the former Liberal government to have increases in fees and charges that are many multiples of the rate of inflation and we have brought it far closer to the model that was reflected in this state for a long period of time.

Of course, we haven't introduced new taxes. In fact, what we have done is we have sought to cut taxes and the most powerful example of that, of course, is the abolition of stamp duty for new builds for first-home buyers. That was a very deliberate tax cut with respect to planning land and building reform, which of course stands in stark contrast to the retrospective tax increase applied by those opposite.