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House of Assembly - Fifty-Fifth Parliament, First Session (55-1)
2025-10-15 Daily Xml
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Question Time

Coast is Calling

S.E. ANDREWS (Gibson) (14:29): My question is to the Treasurer. Can the Treasurer inform the house of the benefits of the $50 dining cashback program and its Coast is Calling campaign for small and family businesses?

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS (West Torrens—Treasurer, Minister for Energy and Mining) (14:30): I am the son of a proprietor who used to own a business in a coastal community. My father and mother owned a little small business on Jetty Road, Glenelg. I can tell you that seasonal retail is very, very difficult: it's tough. It's tough work for these small businesses and during a natural disaster it is even worse. Passing foot trade is something these coastal communities really rely on.

Today the environment minister and I were at Henley Square talking to the manager of a great restaurant there, Stella. It was a beautiful day—it is about 28° today—and there were families out and about with their young children; it was beautiful to see. There were people on the grass, having picnics, getting fish and chips from across the road. There were people at the cafes, Estia was getting ready to open. It was a beautiful sunny day in Adelaide. It almost made me want to 'do a Telfer' and stay there and do a bit of shopping, sit back with a glass of wine. It is a beautiful place. The member for Colton knows how beautiful it is. It is a great place, a great place to be.

Businesses there are aching for people to come along. They are aching for people to turn up and do their shopping, so the voucher campaign for coastal communities is vitally important. Up to $50 off, half your meal for a family—especially my family of four don't get kids meals anymore, they get the main meals and it can be very, very expensive, especially at those smaller shops.

I have to say when you have people who are meant to be the party of small business going out and saying it is not safe to be at the beach, it was safer during COVID to be at the beach, saying that the sea is full of blood—

The Hon. C.J. Picton: Disgraceful.

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: It is disgraceful.

Members interjecting:

The Hon. A. KOUTSANTONIS: The member opposite who is interjecting has a fine history of saying inappropriate things at inappropriate times. I have to say I went to Jetty Road on Sunday and I have seen what the Liberal Party has done to small businesses down that stretch, choosing spring and summer for a vanity project, stopping foot trade, and then having one of their candidates and members in the upper house say to coastal communities and people who want to go to the coast that it's not safe. How do those small businesses feel? How do they feel hearing that from the party of small business?

Do members opposite know what it is like to have a mortgage on their home to run a small business? Do they know what it's like? Go down to Jetty Road, go to Henley Square, go down to Grange, go down to coastal communities and tell those businesses that have mortgages on their homes to run their businesses that what Frank Pangallo and the Liberal Party are doing is the right thing: to try to stop people going down to the beach. In fact, while we were doing the press conference, he did it again. He said, 'Fact: going to the beach was safer during COVID.' During COVID seven million people died. South Australians died during COVID. Using people's deaths, using a global pandemic to equate that to a natural disaster? Those small businesses need encouragement, they need us together saying, 'Visit coastal areas, visit Kangaroo Island, visit the coast, spend your money,' not this rubbish.

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