Coronavirus

The Hon. T.A. FRANKS (15:16): Supplementary: given the closure of pubs, clubs, restaurants and other premises serving alcohol, will liquor licences be suspended or waived, either on a full or pro rata basis?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (15:16): That's a perfect example of one of a range of options the government is currently considering, and our response will be apparent in the coming days, when we announce the second package. But, yes, clearly once the commonwealth government and the national cabinet makes a decision to say, 'Thou shalt not be allowed to open,' there are clearly economic impacts which both the federal and state government need to take into consideration. We are mindful of that.

We are aware of the views that are being expressed, and we are having to look at what our response, together with the commonwealth government response, might be, not just in relation to hotels—and I am sure the honourable member just used that as an example—but if you are running a gym, if you are running a cafe or a restaurant, or bars in the CBD, for example, with the liquor licensing fees that were already being charged but the increases that were coming through.

There are very many impacts. We are mindful of that. We are not adopting a position. Perhaps I should have said in response to my colleague the Hon. Jing Lee's question that I have said publicly on any number of occasions—so, too, has the Premier—that the government's major priority is obviously to protect as many lives as we can from a health viewpoint and to provide as much community safety as we humanly can, but similarly we are also mindful of the impacts on families and businesses during this particular period. They will be our priorities.

We have acknowledged—I acknowledged some many weeks ago now—that we will not deliver a budget surplus this year. We will not deliver a budget surplus next year. We will have significant budget deficits this year and next year. That is not our priority. I may well be the first Treasurer in the state parliament to ever publicly acknowledge that. We might have thought that perhaps some treasurers had that view, but they would never have admitted to it, but I do so on behalf of the government.

Our priorities are the priorities that we've outlined. We will have to spend whatever we have to spend in terms of combating the health threats that the Minister for Health identifies for us and the spending that needs to be spent in those areas. We will have to find the money and, yes, we have been and I guess will still be criticised that we are increasing the level of the state's debt to fund important infrastructure programs, but we will continue to fund those infrastructure programs where they can continue, and we will have to increase the level of the state's debt to fund the important health initiatives and the payroll tax or any other initiatives that we look at in terms of trying to maintain job activity within the community for at the very least this year and next year.