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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-09-24 Daily Xml
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Land Tax

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN (Lee) (15:04): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier identify members of the community who are supportive of changes to land tax?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (15:05): I'm certainly very happy to talk about the 92 per cent of individuals and the 75 per cent—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! We have the question. Be quiet.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and the 75 per cent of company groups who will be better off. What we show with the modelling, which we have been providing to the people of South Australia, independently verified—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader, be quiet.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —by one of the major four companies in this state—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Premier, be seated for one moment. If this continues, members will be leaving. Premier.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: As I was just saying, there are a huge number of people who will benefit. Those who will no longer be paying any land tax in South Australia will be clearly better off. Those on that side of the house clearly don't want to stand up for those people who are currently paying tax that will not be paying land tax under our regime, but we're very happy for all those people to be supported by the government. The second group of people, of course, who will benefit will be the individuals and the company groups who will have their land tax reduced.

Ms Stinson: Name an individual. Name a company.

The SPEAKER: The member for Badcoe can leave for 20 minutes under 137A.

The honourable member for Badcoe having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The net effect in year 1 is a $20 million reduction in land tax. This is principally delivered by two key measures: one is an increase in the threshold and the second one is driving the top marginal rate from 3.7 per cent down to 2.4. Now, 2.4 is the average of the mainland states in Australia. It is still not the best, and we've got more to do in terms of reducing the burden of taxation on the individuals and the businesses here in South Australia. But we're up for that. We know it's going to reduce revenue into the state coffers, but what we know is that it will stimulate economic activity in this state, and that's precisely what we're all about—creating opportunity for the next generation.

To provide evidence to you, sir, and to this house of the increasing level of confidence in this state, I refer this house to the statistics of the net interstate migration that have just been released by the ABS. I think this is an important issue for us to consider—

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Point of order—

The SPEAKER: Premier, there is a point of order. The point of order is for—

The Hon. S.C. MULLIGHAN: Debate: it was clearly about beneficiaries of proposed land tax policies.

The SPEAKER: Yes, yes. The Premier is speaking broadly about economic activity. It is on the cusp. I will listen to him carefully.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: It's disorderly to respond to interruptions—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, member for Lee!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: But it's probably not disorderly to respond to points of order. But for the member for Lee to suggest—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: It is actually. You mentioned that for another point of order.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: For the member for Lee—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: The standing orders?

The SPEAKER: Member for Lee, you can leave for 15 minutes under 137A.

The honourable member for Lee having withdrawn from the chamber:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: For the member for Lee to suggest that it is debate to talk about the massive reduction in the net interstate migration in South Australia—

Mr Brown: Name one person who supports it.

The SPEAKER: Member for Playford!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —really suggests that there is a major and increasing chasm between the ideologies on both sides of this chamber.

Mr Brown: One—one person.

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We stand for the beneficiaries of our land tax reform and our broader reform here in South Australia. This is now gathering in evidence. What we are now increasingly seeing is a more confident South Australia, with younger people deciding they want to stay here. They see their future here. Previously, there was a mass exodus of young people and capital out of South Australia. Now we see the opposite—a massive increase in private new capital investment in South Australia, up in double digit increases here in South Australia while the rest of the country is going backwards. They hate it.

The other issue, of course, I was referring to is the net interstate migration. Under those opposite, sometimes we saw the net figure up over 7,000—in fact, trending towards 8,000. The stats that came out last week say that we are now at 4,000, and our focus is to get it back to zero and then have a net migration to South Australia. But it's not going to happen by hoping for it to happen. It's going to happen through economic reform, driving lower taxes and creating a more attractive business environment for jobs and investment in South Australia.

Mr PICTON: Point of order, sir: it appeared that the Minister for Education took a photo of the member for West Torrens when he was being ejected from the parliament.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: I am happy to advise I did take a photo of the member's behaviour. I was planning on providing it to you. I am happy to do so or delete it as you wish.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: I don't need your help, but thank you. I called the member for West Torrens out for what appeared to be him displaying a picture on an iPhone—I think he is an iPhone guy—to the government. That was out of order and he should not have done that. The minister, if he has taken a photo, should not have done that. I do remember Speaker Atkinson pulling me over the coals for something similar, so I ask the Minister for Education to delete it and I don't want to see it happening again.

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