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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
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State Budget

Mr DULUK (Waite) (14:18): Thank you very much, Mr Speaker. My question—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

Mr DULUK: My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier please update the house on the 2018-19 state budget and how that budget is delivering economic reform for South Australia?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:19): It's with great pleasure that I rise and answer the question from the member for Waite, and I thank him for his interest in our state budget. He and the people of Waite are very interested in economic reform, economic growth, more jobs in South Australia. As you would know, sir, in the March election—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —the people of South Australia voted for a change in government. Some haven't accepted this yet. The reality is they voted for change. They voted for a strong plan to get our state back on track, and that's precisely what was delivered in the budget that was handed down only a few weeks ago. I think one of the things—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Lee is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that the people of South Australia really were surprised about when they read the budget was the size of the black hole left by those opposite: a deficit, projected by the former treasurer to be a $12 million surplus. Guess what? They missed it by that much. It was almost $400 million. But, let me tell you—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —the government is not using that as an excuse to break promises to the people of South Australia. In fact, we are very proud not to use that as an excuse not to get on and deliver every single one of the reforms, every single one of the commitments that we talked about in the lead-up to the election. That's exactly what we are going to do. We are very proud that the new budget actually projects surpluses across each year of the forward estimates, something that was completely and utterly unachievable by those opposite—seven deficits in the last 10 years. Of course, what we are also doing—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —is addressing the completely unsustainable budget position which was left by the former government. Importantly, in the lead-up to the election we all spoke about the most important thing facing the people of South Australia, which was creating more jobs for the next generation. That's something we feel very strongly about. That was why we were very pleased when the budget came out that the projection for the jobs growth this year is 1.5 per cent, a 50 per cent increase in the projection—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —that was handed down in the Mid-Year Budget Review just six months earlier. So Treasury's projection is for a 50 per cent increase in that employment growth, and that is something that everybody on this side of the house is very, very proud of.

Not only are we proud of it, sir, we are acting on it. That's why, as you would be aware, the budget provides the delivery of the commitment that we made in the lead-up to the election, and that was to put through the payroll tax cuts for 1 January next year.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Those opposite hate it. They hate relinquishing any tax. They hate it. They don't like to look after those people who are out there employing people, but we want to. We want to grow the size of our economy. We want more people employed in South Australia. We want more young people staying in our state. That's why we did everything we could to take that burden away from businesses in South Australia.

More than that, we have had a record $11.3 billion investment in infrastructure in the budget that we have put forward. Those opposite, of course, prior to the budget, were out there scaremongering, saying that there was going to be this massive, big black hole in terms of infrastructure. We didn't hear any congratulations from those opposite saying, 'Well, congratulations, a record spend.' Not a word.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We know that by making that investment we will not only create more jobs in South Australia but, of course, we will have the productive infrastructure that we so desperately need to grow our state. We've also got a big spend in skills.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Skills investment, infrastructure investment, returning the budget to surplus and, of course, tax cuts—a good budget which is going to set up our state for future years to come.

The SPEAKER: I call to order the Leader of the Opposition and the Deputy Premier, and I warn the following members for a first time: the member for Reynell, the member for West Torrens, the member for Lee, and I call to order the member for Playford for exclaiming, 'Big spender!' during the Premier's answer. Member for Kaurna.

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