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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fourth Parliament, First Session (54-1)
2019-03-20 Daily Xml
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Population Growth

Mr COWDREY (Colton) (14:12): My question is to the Premier. Can the Premier update the house about recent announcements made by the Prime Minister regarding population growth and what it will mean for South Australia?

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL (Dunstan—Premier) (14:12): Can I thank the member for Colton for his excellent question, a very important question about population growth here in South Australia. I would like to acknowledge and thank the Prime Minister of Australia, the Hon. Scott Morrison, a great friend of the people of South Australia, for his understanding of the great opportunity that exists—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —to review the migration setting for Australia. For a very long period of time, there has been one set of migration policies put in place that have disadvantaged our state. We didn't hear anything from those opposite when they were in government, and the fact that they slowed the economy by pulling on that massive handbrake to slow our economy for such a long period of time resulted in the fact that our population growth fell way behind the national population growth rate.

In fact, over the 16 years of the previous Labor maladministration here in South Australia the national population growth rose by 1.7 per cent, while South Australia grew by just 0.6 of a per cent. Some think that this is not a problem. Some don't like migration. In fact, we have heard a lot from different politicians recently who are not keen for migration. In fact, we heard the Deputy Leader of the Opposition today on the radio saying that South Australia is not a good place—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —to come to at the moment. I don't know why she is talking down—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order, members on my left and right!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —South Australia. I think it is a great place to come to.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: I think it is a great place to come to.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order! The Premier will not provoke the opposition.

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: We are encouraging population growth here in South Australia. What the Prime Minister has done is put a nuanced set of migration policies in place, and that's good for South Australia, because—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —we don't want to continually fall behind the national population growth rate. The consequences of that are a slowing economy, fewer jobs, more people moving out of South Australia. At the next federal election, we are losing further influence at the national level, losing a seat in the federal parliament. Those opposite turned a blind eye to this. We will not take such a hopeless, laid-back attitude; in fact, we're doing everything we can to advocate for sensible targeted population growth in South Australia.

I would love to take this opportunity to put on the record exactly and precisely our priority areas. Number one: keep more South Australians here in South Australia. The reality is that under those opposite we saw more and more people giving up hope of ever finding a sustainable job here in this state. In fact, the net interstate migration rate—the difference between those leaving and those coming back to South Australia—was growing every single year. We were seeing 4,000, 5,000, 6,000 and sometimes 7,000, in a net term, leaving our state.

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: Those opposite say, 'Well, that's what happens in a low-growth state,' but it's not. Tasmania had a net migration to Tasmania; South Australia had a massive migration away from it. That is not acceptable, and that's why everything we do is about growing the size of our economy, setting our ambition much higher—

Members interjecting:

The SPEAKER: Order!

The Hon. S.S. MARSHALL: —and keeping those young people here in South Australia. More than that, we want more international students. I applaud and commend the Prime Minister for the incentives that he is going to provide for international students to come to South Australia to study. That's good news. We want to grow the size of our international student population because we know that this is great for jobs in our state.

More than that, we want to see targeted migration—skilled migration—to South Australia to deal with some of the very significant skills shortages that we have in our state. There are some in regional South Australia and some in metropolitan Adelaide, especially around critical areas that we want to focus on in the future, like defence, space, blockchain, cyber and artificial intelligence. These are the critical areas.

We want more people to come to South Australia and make this their home because we know that this will remove those constraints to the overall productivity of our state, grow our population and keep even more people here, enjoying our wonderful state.

The SPEAKER: Before I call the leader, I warn the member for Reynell for the first time, and I call to order the deputy leader. The Attorney-General is also called to order—

The Hon. S.C. Mullighan: Blockchain tassels.

The SPEAKER: —as is the member for Lee. Leader of the Opposition.

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