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House of Assembly - Fifty-Second Parliament, Second Session (52-2)
2012-03-13 Daily Xml
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Question Time

STATE ECONOMY

Mrs REDMOND (Heysen—Leader of the Opposition) (14:19): My question is to the Premier. Why, after 10 years of Labor government, does South Australia now have the worst economic growth of all states, and why has it just experienced two consecutive quarters of negative growth, which economists define as a recession?

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL (Cheltenham—Premier, Minister for State Development) (14:19): I thank the honourable leader for her question because she has just misled the house and the community, and it's important to—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mrs REDMOND: Point of order, Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Point of order, Leader of the Opposition.

Mrs REDMOND: The Premier just accused me of misleading the house. My understanding of the rules is that he can't do that without moving it as a substantive motion.

The SPEAKER: Thank you. Premier, you need to be careful of that. I uphold that.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Madam Speaker, I am sure it was inadvertent but—

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker.

The SPEAKER: Point of order, member for—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I can't hear you.

Mr WILLIAMS: Thank you, Madam Speaker. I think it's a convention of the house that, when members do err in such a manner as the Premier just has, they are asked by the Chair to withdraw and apologise.

The SPEAKER: I did say to the Premier that I did uphold that point of order, but I think he apologised anyway, but perhaps if you just retract your words, Premier.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Madam Speaker, let me be clear. What the Leader of the Opposition—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr WILLIAMS: Point of order, Madam Speaker. The convention of the house is that you can only accuse somebody of misleading by substantive motion, and otherwise the Premier must withdraw.

The SPEAKER: Thank you. Premier, can you move to withdraw the word 'misleading' and—

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I withdraw the word 'mislead', Madam Speaker, but can I point out to the house—

The SPEAKER: You may clarify the answer.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —that the information that I am about to put before the house will lead to no other conclusion than that those opposite have over the last few weeks been perpetrating mistruths into the public debate in a way which can only be said to have misled the community. Can I say this: that it's obviously part of—

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, Leader of the Opposition!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: —a fairly desperate attempt to rob South Australians of the confidence that they have in their future. I notice today that the shadow minister also has perpetrated the same remark, where just a few hours ago he mentioned economic growth going backwards for two consecutive quarters. Well, that just happens to be false; it happens to be false. It just happens to be false. State final—

Members interjecting:

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Well, it's—

Ms Chapman: Poor old Kevin!

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Exactly—now we're getting to the truth. You didn't use your words very carefully earlier on. The truth of the matter is this: they have chosen one component of our economic growth, which is state final demand, and sought to pass that off as economic growth. They have done that deliberately to create an impression in the minds of the community that this state is in recession. That is simply unsustainable.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: No, you're slipping and sliding here. What comes from across the chamber is that now that they are actually confronted with the reality of their own words and the fact that the technical recession—the so-called technical recession—that they say we're in the middle of isn't in fact a technical recession at all: it actually involves a definitional problem with those opposite. They are now sliding into other things. I would just ask—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Unley and Leader of the Opposition!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: 'Just ask some of our mates and they'll tell you things aren't going so well,' that's what it now slides back to. The reality is economists generally believe that two consecutive quarters of decline in production amount to a recession, and that is not what we are looking at here. The fact is that we don't have a quarterly measure of production here in our economic statistics. We in fact don't have a measure of that sort. The Australian Bureau of Statistics only produces estimates of gross state product or GSP at the state level on an annual basis, and so those opposite who were seeking to grab a few statistics to try to make their points have now been embarrassed.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Members will listen to the Premier in silence.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: This is an important point, I think, for those opposite to be educated about and generally those in the community who are relying upon their remarks about the state of our economy. State final demand measures spending in the local economy—so measures such as South Australian household spending on the construction of new houses, spending by governments and investment spending by businesses. Much of this spending is on goods and services that are not made in South Australia; they come from interstate and overseas. Our spending—and this is a very important point—does not include the goods and services that we produce for export interstate and overseas. For those opposite to grasp—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: They can shout as much as they like at this point, because they do not want to hear what will amount to a complete demolition of the arguments they have been running in the last couple of weeks.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: They have been running around and passing off one discrete component of state economic growth as economic growth. It is false. It is creating a false impression in the minds of the community—

Mr GARDNER: Point of order, Madam Speaker. We've had six minutes of obfuscation which is clearly against the new standing orders.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Morialta. Premier, have you finished your answer?

The Hon. P.F. CONLON: Point of order, Madam. I'd like to know what 'obfu-oscation' is.

The SPEAKER: Yes, I would, too. I did not uphold the point of order because I did not understand the word.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Premier, your time has actually expired, if you could wind up.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: Madam Speaker—

Ms Chapman: His time is finished; sit him down.

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mrs REDMOND: I understood that the new rules required the answer to be no longer than four minutes.

The SPEAKER: Thank you, yes. Because it is the first question of this week, I have given him a little bit of leniency and it was an answer to your question. Premier, I would ask you to wind up.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: I will wind up soon, Madam Speaker, but we've been interrupted consistently through the whole of this answer.

Mr Williams interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Deputy leader, if you want to ask a question, you can.

The Hon. J.W. WEATHERILL: We have many strong points in this economy. Our overall new business investment rose by 4.3 per cent in the December quarter of 2011. The state's unemployment rate is at 5.2 per cent, currently down from 5.5 per cent a year ago. Spending on mineral and petroleum exploration increased by 57 per cent for the year through to September 2011. South Australian crop production 2011-12 looks likely to be the third highest on record following the record crop of 2010-11, and $109 billion of investment spending is in the pipeline.

Ms Chapman: Seven minutes!

The SPEAKER: Thank you, member for Bragg. I can count.

Mrs Redmond interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! As I said, I gave some leniency on that question because it was the first question for the week and it was an opposition question. However, we will be very careful about answers, please, ministers.

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