SOUTH AUSTRALIAN ECONOMY

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (15:51): I rise today to speak about the state of the South Australian economy. We, in this chamber and publicly, have been exposed to both the Premier and ministers waxing lyrical about, in their terms, the health of the South Australian economy and quoting figures and claimed investment reports and other investments as evidence of their particular claims.

The stark reality, as opposed to the unreality of the Premier and the Labor government's position, has been revealed today by the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, the independent figures of the ABS, on the health of the South Australian economy. They release figures which measure, in quarterly terms, economic growth in South Australia and each of the other states and nationally.

Sadly, for South Australia the reality is that the Australian Bureau of Statistics has indicated that South Australia is officially in recession—that dreaded 'r' word. It is not just the technical definition of recession—that is, two consecutive quarters of negative growth; indeed, one of their own heroes in Labor terms, former treasurer Kevin Foley, said on the public record on 14 August 2007:

The ANZ's economists who wrote this report need to go back to 'Economics 101', where they would have learned that any recession must have at least two consecutive quarters of negative growth.

So, in Labor terms, and in economists' terms and in technical terms, this state of South Australia is in a recession. Our economy has gone backwards for this last three-month period and prior to that went backwards for the previous three-month period as well.

Sometimes, Mr President, the government, with its political spin (with which you would be very familiar) is wont to say, 'Well, if you look at the trend figures, or if you look at the seasonally adjusted figures,' and try to spin something better. But sadly for the government, sadly for our economy, and sadly for South Australian families, it does not matter whether you look at the ABS's trend figures or whether you look at the ABS's seasonally adjusted figures, on both those measures South Australia's economy is in 'recession', to use the words of Kevin Foley, because we have been going backwards for the last two years.

Embarrassingly for the Premier, in his most recent attempt to talk up his own performance and the performance of his own government he talked glowingly of a development and investment at Gilberton as an example of the health of the South Australian economy and how recent policy decisions that he and the government had taken had encouraged such developments. Embarrassingly for the Premier, and for the Labor government, and sadly for the people of South Australia, that development has had to be scrapped in the terms in which it was originally announced. That was a major high-rise, high-density development in the Gilberton area, taking advantage of stamp duty concessions.

That particular proposal is no more; it is a dead development, to use an adaptation of a Monty Python phrase. The developers will do the best they can, given the condition of the South Australian economy at the moment, but that development will not continue because of lack of investment support. Indeed, deposits have had to be returned to investors as a result of the development not proceeding. Similarly, today, the Australian Bureau of Statistics export figures demonstrated a further decline in terms of the economic performance of our South Australian economy.

So rather than the political spin and the unreality of the Premier, his ministers and this government, the brutal, independent facts, the reality of the Australian Bureau of Statistics figures, demonstrate that under this government, under this Premier and these policies, we are going backwards. What the people of South Australia want, what South Australian families want, is a fresh start under a new Liberal government post-March 2014.