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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
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Question Time

CAR PARKING LEVY

Mr MARSHALL (Norwood—Leader of the Opposition) (14:21): My question is to the Premier. Why is the Premier introducing a new car park tax after earlier saying that there would not be higher taxes following the Olympic Dam expansion being postponed?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Treasurer, Minister for State Development, Minister for the Public Sector, Minister for the Arts) (14:21): I thank the honourable member for his question. The transport development levy is proposed to be introduced—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Car park levy, transport development levy, as you please—is proposed to be introduced from 1 July. It has three principal virtues: one is that it does raise much-needed revenue to assist us to provide the sorts of services the community expects of us, because we believe in running the economy for the benefit of the broader cross-section of the South Australian community.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I call the member for Adelaide and the member for Heysen to order.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: We believe that our role in managing the economy is about doing it for the benefit of ordinary working men and women of South Australia, and that is why we need to have a revenue base to provide those services. It is worth noting I think in this regard that in 2002 our share of revenue of the state economy was fixed at a certain amount; it is now lower than that. So, we are taking less of a share of the state economy in revenue into the state government than we were in 2002.

Now, that is largely a consequence of the fact that the parts of the economy where we draw our revenue have experienced some of the weaker economic conditions, but generally the economy remains a strong economy. The parts of the economy from which we raise our taxation revenue have been in a relative sense more depressed than the other parts of the economy. Also, a very substantial part of that is retail spending, which is where our GST funding comes from.

If you are to sustain your level of services then you have to look to other revenue measures, especially in the context of us raising no more as a proportion of the economy than we did back in 2002. We believe in government services. We believe in public transport investment to ensure that we actually maintain that level of public services. The other virtue of course is that every major capital city has an arrangement of this sort because it encourages people to take public transport and reduces congestion. It is a sensible measure.

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

Ms Chapman: Except you can't get a bus on time.

The SPEAKER: I call the member for Bragg to order and I warn the member for Heysen for the first time.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I notice the member for Bragg spouts up about the public transport system. We did find a public transport system in need of investment. That is why we are putting $2 billion of investment into public transport, because we saw a system that had a serious underinvestment problem, when we are building the quality of our public investment. We believe that a modern city requires a high quality public transport system. That is why we want to make sure that there aren't all these cars coming into the city, which is certainly not something which is sustainable in the long term.

We can't have cars coming in with one or two people in them and buses coming in with 40 people. The obvious sense is we need to encourage more public transport and reduce the congestion that comes from moving large numbers of people in a very inefficient way. That is the other principal virtue of this policy, and I note that the opposition has teamed up with the big end of town and hold the process—are we to be surprised? Once lining up with the AHA against us, now lining up with the big property developers against us. Are we to be surprised?

Mr Venning: Close it down!

Ms Chapman: Are you surprised?

Mr Marshall: He is asking you a question, Mr Speaker.

The SPEAKER: I am not sure that he is. I call the member for Schubert to order.

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