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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-11-12 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Business Confidence

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:12): My question is to the Premier. Does the Premier think his land tax policy has improved or damaged business confidence in South Australia?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:13): Pessimistic Pete—sorry, the Leader of the Opposition was not listening to my answer. The reality is—

An honourable member: Point of order, sir.

The SPEAKER: Yes, I caution the Premier about that sort of discourse.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Some people refer to the opposition leader by other names; I'm sticking with the official title: the Leader of Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition. As he said only moments ago in the parliament, he basically demonstrated he didn't understand what was going on in South Australia. The most recent statistics are the NAB confidence surveys, which cover the month of October—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: There we go again. We have these problems with those people understanding the calendar because July, August and September actually precede October. October coming after September means that that is the most recent. I don't know whether you've got a friend on that side who can explain it to you.

A lot of people learn this when they are in primary school; some people take a little bit longer to come around to understanding these basic things, but we worked out how the calendar works. It worked pretty well for a couple of thousand years, so we will stick with it on this side. The most recent statistics show—October, after the September quarter—that business confidence in South Australia remains in positive territory and business conditions have improved in South Australia.

We are the first to admit that Australia is facing some headwinds at the moment. Even in the Business SA survey, we see quite clearly the authors of this report talking about great volatility within survey results. Australia is really in a position where the uncertainty and the global turmoil around trade are having effects on confidence and business conditions nationally, so we should compare ourselves nationally—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and when we do that, which I think is a reasonable thing to do, we see that overall South Australia has improved business conditions as reported by the NAB October results which are out today. This doesn't mean that every single business in South Australia is feeling more confident, because that's not the way that it works. There is a patchy—

The SPEAKER: Premier, there is a point of the order from the member for West Torrens.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: Yes, sir. I will go to debate, sir. The question was about whether or not land tax had a detrimental or positive impact on business confidence.

The SPEAKER: Yes, there is a point of order on the point of order.

The Hon. J.A.W. GARDNER: That was a bogus point of order. The Premier's response was germane to the question even as described just then.

The SPEAKER: I have the point of order for debate. With respect to the member for West Torrens, there is a little bit of subjectivity as to whether a certain policy may have led to an improvement or detriment in the economy. I will allow the Premier some time, and I ask him to come back to the substance of the question. He has had a couple of minutes.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The Premier has the call. I would like to hear his answer, members on my left.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Sir, those opposite hate any good news for South Australia. Now, it might serve their interest to continually talk down the economy—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! Members on my left, be quiet.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —but the reality is that we operate in a national and a global environment and there is significant uncertainty. This is hitting some sectors more than others. As I said, some surveys—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —are with specific cohorts, whether it be the Property Council survey, which looks at Property Council members, or the Business SA survey—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —which looks at Business SA members.

The Hon. A. Koutsantonis interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for West Torrens is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: When you look at the national survey results, you see that South Australia's results are generally in line with what is going on in the nation—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Leader!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —so you see our business conditions for October improving—that means getting better, and this is the fact.

Mr Brown interjecting:

The SPEAKER: The member for Playford is warned.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We are not going to be diverted from our focus on lowering the cost of doing business in South Australia, and that means lowering taxes, and that is what we've got the ticker to do on this side of the parliament—not like those opposite, who shirked their responsibilities for 16 long, torturous years on the South Australian economy. We are up for that reform. We've got that bill before this parliament at the moment and we are going to be pursuing it for as long as we possibly can.

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