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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
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Shop Trading Hours

Mr MALINAUSKAS (Croydon—Leader of the Opposition) (14:42): My question is to the Minister for Industry and Skills. What is the minister doing to support South Australian small businesses who are concerned about the impact of shop trading hours deregulation on their businesses? Mr Alex Zizzo, of G. Zizzo and Sons, says:

Deregulated shop trading hours will help Coles and Woolworths and drive SA shops out of business. 100 per cent of our produce goes to independent retailers. The big chains often stock fruit and vegetables from overseas.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:43): The Leader of the Opposition asks what we are doing to support industry in South Australia, and the answer to that is plenty. We have already made sure that as of 1 July this year we will be reducing their costs by returning the $360 million that the former government took out of the economy in effectively doubling the emergency services levy by removing the remission.

Another thing we are doing to support industry in South Australia, of course, is to remove payroll tax on all small business in South Australia. As of 1 January, no small business in this state with an annual payroll of up to $1.5 million will be paying a cent. Previously, the threshold was, I think, $600,000 and it is now going to $1.5 million. No government has ever done so much for small business as this government has already announced in its first 79 days—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and implemented as quickly as possible. One of the other things we are doing—

Mr Malinauskas interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: The Leader of the Opposition asks a reasonable question: what are we doing? Another one of the critical things we are doing is we are addressing the skills shortage that exists in business in South Australia. Those opposite were happy to preside over this freefall in terms of the number of kids in South Australia, children in South Australia and young people in South Australia, who were taking up apprenticeships in South Australia. I'll tell you one thing that the new government is doing: we are putting more money into creating more apprenticeships and more traineeships in South Australia because—

An honourable member interjecting:

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —I know—if we provide these young people with opportunities in terms of training, they will stay in South Australia. We are going to do every single solitary thing we possibly can to make it a more attractive environment for business in this state to flourish, because we know if we do this we will grow our economy, we will grow jobs in South Australia, we will keep young people in South Australia. Also, we will actually grow revenue in the state government coffers, and I think this is worth exploring. Often, those opposite think that, when you provide tax cuts, this is a loss of revenue to the state. Well, I say this to those opposite: revenue is a function of the rate multiplied by the volume.

They have had the handbrake on the South Australian economy for a long period of time. By reducing these rates down, by reducing the cost of doing business in South Australia, we believe on this side of the house that we will grow business confidence. People will invest in their businesses, they will grow the volume, the size of our economy, and that will create further revenue into our state coffers so that we can provide quality services to the people of South Australia. That's our equation. We took it to the people of South Australia.

There is no scary news in our budget, which is coming up in September. The reality is that every single thing we said that we were going to do we are doing. I'll tell you what happened after the 2014 election. There was no discussion about this $360 million whack to businesses and households in South Australia, but immediately after the election, of course, the first budget comes down—horror! The reality is that we on this side will be bringing down a budget that is in the best interests of growing our economy in South Australia, delivering on all of the commitments we made.

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