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House of Assembly - Fifty-First Parliament, Third Session (51-3)
2008-10-30 Daily Xml
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WORKCOVER LEVY

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH (Waite—Leader of the Opposition) (14:25): My question is to the Premier. In light of the Minister for Industrial Relations' failure to answer the earlier question—

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: —can the Premier guarantee—

The SPEAKER: Order! That first part of the question is debate.

Mr HAMILTON-SMITH: Can the Premier guarantee small businesses that his promise, made in parliament on 1 April 2008, to reduce the average levy rate to as low as 2.25 per cent will be met, and when will it be met?

The Hon. M.D. RANN (Ramsay—Premier, Minister for Economic Development, Minister for Social Inclusion, Minister for the Arts, Minister for Sustainability and Climate Change) (14:25): Only this government had the courage to take legislative action. We remember what the members opposite said: you said that you would not take that action. You were prepared to allow it to continue to blow out, to burgeon—

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: Until he was told what to do.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Until he got a phone call from Business SA—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The house will come to order.

The Hon. P.F. Conlon: They're a rabble going nowhere.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Yes, a rabble going nowhere; just look at them! So, here we have an opposition who in government failed to reform WorkCover, who in government absolutely knew that we had the worst performing WorkCover scheme in the nation—

Mr Hamilton-Smith interjecting:

The Hon. M.D. RANN: If you want to talk, get up and talk.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The house will come to order. The Premier has the call.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Okay; one last try.

Ms CHAPMAN: On a point of order, Mr Speaker. Before you intervened in the debate on this matter, the Premier had sat down. That concludes his contribution to the house.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! There is no point of order. The Premier took his seat because he could not be heard over the interjections from members on my left. The Premier.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: Can I remind the deputy leader—

Ms Chapman interjecting:

The Hon. K.O. FOLEY: Mr Speaker, the Deputy Leader of the Opposition just made an audible comment critical of you, sir. I ask that she withdraw.

The SPEAKER: I thank the Deputy Premier for his concern, but I think I will be okay. I will talk to her about it afterwards. The Premier.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I remind the Liberal opposition that there are school students in the gallery. I will try now for the third time. The previous government failed to reform WorkCover. It knew that we had the worst—

Mr Williams: You voted against the reform; you voted against it.

The SPEAKER: Order! The member for MacKillop will come to order.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: I will try for the fourth and last time, otherwise there is no point in continuing. The previous government refused to reform WorkCover. It knew that we had the worst performing scheme in the country, the worst return-to-work rate in the country. It knew that we had the highest premiums in the country. It was aware—

Mr Pisoni interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Unley will come to order.

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —of the structural problems in the WorkCover scheme. This government had the guts to make the tough decisions. And we did so because we want to make sure that the WorkCover scheme—

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for MacKillop!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: —is brought into line with other workers' compensation schemes around the country. The reason we took action by legislation is because we had the worst return-to-work rate in the country, the highest premiums in the country, and a rising unfunded liability. The WorkCover scheme, under the Liberals, and during every previous government, was bad for business, bad for injured workers, and bad for the government. Someone had to have the guts to fix the scheme, and that is why, as unpopular as it was, we decided to take action.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. M.D. RANN: But I do remember that the shadow minister came out and said that they were not going to fix the scheme; and that, I guess, is the difference. The other side of politics—the Liberals—do not give damn about injured workers, and clearly demonstrated that they do not give a damn about small business either.

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