House of Assembly - Fifty-Third Parliament, First Session (53-1)
2014-06-04 Daily Xml

Contents

State Growth

The Hon. I.F. EVANS (Davenport) (14:45): My question is again to the Treasurer. As the ABS stats I used in the previous question were all for the March quarter which was before the federal budget, why was the state's growth so much lower than budgeted? The federal budget had no impact on that.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Finance, Minister for State Development, Minister for Mineral Resources and Energy, Minister for Small Business) (14:45): The one stat he does not mention, again by selectively quoting, is that we are 0.4 per cent higher than we were a year ago. Oh, but don't worry about that. That is irrelevant to my argument. Don't let that get in the way of a good story. Don't let that get in the way of your narrative. We are better off than we were a year ago, but they do not want to talk about that at all. That is typical of the Opposition, prepared to talk down this state at every opportunity that they get and, quite frankly, South Australians are sick of it.