Interstate Migration

The Hon. D.W. RIDGWAY (14:52): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer please comment on claims based on the federal budget papers that South Australia will lose 3,900 persons to interstate migration next year?

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS (Treasurer) (14:52): I understand that buried in the federal budget papers there is a table that purports to reflect federal Treasury estimates in terms of net interstate migration figures for the last couple of years and for the forward estimate figures. That particular table estimates that there will be a net loss—that is, more people leaving South Australia than coming to South Australia—for this financial year (2020-21) of 2,600, and then estimates next year at around about 3,900 more people leaving South Australia than coming to South Australia.

I suspect, and my advice is, that this possibly is federal Treasury looking at the last 20-year average under the former Labor government, when over 16 years approximately 64,000 more people left South Australia than came to South Australia, which is an average of about 4,000 people a year. Next year's estimate takes you back almost to 4,000, which is 3,900.

I think I had a question either last week or this week in relation to the most recent net interstate migration figures and I indicated that in the last year under this government the terrible record of the former Labor government, where more people were fleeing the state than were being attracted to the state in terms of net interstate migration, had been, thankfully, reversed. My advice is, in relation to—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: I am advised that in the first six months of the financial year 2020-21 there was actually a net interstate migration gain of 210—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —people in South Australia, which is clearly entirely inconsistent with the federal Treasury estimate of a loss of 2,600 over the 12-month period.

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: As I said, with great respect to the federal Treasury people who are responsible for these particular estimates, they certainly don't coincide with the—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —independent figures being released by the—

The Hon. K.J. Maher interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: The Leader of the Opposition!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —Australian Bureau of Statistics, because I placed on the public record before and I do so again today the most recent figures in relation to net interstate migration. The government is confident in the economic recovery that we are seeing. There is certainly the significant investment in defence, submarine, shipbuilding—

The Hon. J.E. Hanson: COVID.

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —Space Agency. Yes, the response to COVID has been as good or better than any other—

Members interjecting:

The PRESIDENT: Order!

The Hon. R.I. LUCAS: —jurisdiction in Australia. It is being seen as an attraction for people to move from other parts of Australia to the safe confines of South Australia.