Goods and Services Tax

The Hon. D.G.E. HOOD (15:01): My question is to the Treasurer: will he update the chamber on the status of the GST negotiations with the commonwealth?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:02): I thank the honourable member for his question, because I think in the last 48 hours I have received, as have all Treasurers I suspect, correspondence from the new federal Treasurer, Mr Frydenberg. On behalf of the government, and I am sure the chamber, we all wish him well in the challenge he has before him.

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: We'll just ignore him. The correspondence from the federal Treasurer to myself (and I assume to all the other Treasurers) was indeed to confirm the meeting of all the Treasurers—the federal Treasurer and the state and territory Treasurers—for, I think, 3 October, so about two weeks away, for further discussions on a range of issues, but the principle one, as I understand it, is a further discussion in relation to the GST deal, as it is colloquially referred to, which obviously relates also to a discussion about horizontal fiscal equalisation.

That will be the first opportunity the Marshall Liberal government will have in a formal setting to put to the new Treasurer exactly the same position that we put to the former treasurer, now Prime Minister Morrison—and we congratulate him as well—and the same position we put to the people of South Australia prior to the state election; that is, unequivocally, that the Marshall Liberal government won't be supporting any proposed GST deal that disadvantages the people of South Australia.

I can assure this chamber, on behalf of the government, and assure the public, that the state government's position remains as it was prior to the election, as it has been on a number of occasions in discussions I have had with former treasurer Morrison. Also, Premier Marshall has had discussions with both the former prime minister and the current Prime Minister, again in similar terms, reiterating our position that we won't be supporting any proposed deal unless we make a judgement that it is in the best interests of the people of South Australia.